HARVARD  STUDIES  IN  ROMANCE 
LANGUAGES 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE 
DEPARTMENT  OF  FRENCH  AND  OTHER 
ROMANCE  LANGUAGES  AND  LITERATURES 

VOLUME  II 


CHARLES  FONTAINE 


BY 


RICHMOND  LAURINLHAWKINS,  PH.D. 

INSTRUCTOR  IN  FRENCH  IN  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 


CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1916 


COPYRIGHT,  IQl6 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


SANTA  BARBARA 


F7Z7 


PREFACE 

FOR  three  and  one-half  centuries  Charles  Fontaine  either  was 
wholly  forgotten  or  was  vaguely  known  to  a  few  specialists  as  a 
disciple  of  Clement  Marot  and  perhaps  as  the  author  of  the 
Quintil  Horatian  and  of  a  poem  on  the  birth  of  one  of  his  children. 
During  the  past  twenty-five  years  —  years  in  which  the  study  of 
the  French  Renaissance  has  been  revolutionized  —  he  has 
attracted  the  attention  of  some  of  the  foremost  scholars  of 
France.  Joseph  Desormaux,  William  Poidebard,  President 
Baudrier,  Leon  Galle,  Pierre  de  Nolhac,  fimile  Roy,  Henri 
Chamard,  Louis  Clement,  fimile  Picot,  Paul  Bonnefon,  Ferdi- 
nand Gohin,  Abel  Lefranc,  and  Paul  Laumonier  have  devoted  to 
various  phases  of  his  career  articles  or  notes  which  have  helped  to 
give  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  man  and  his  works.  The 
present  book  is  intended  to  correlate  and  to  supplement  the 
efforts  of  my  predecessors.  What  previous  investigators  have 
done  for  Guillaume  Cretin,  Jean  Marot,  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais, 
Antoine  du  Moulin,  Louise  Labe,  Eustorg  de  Beaulieu,  Calvy  de 
la  Fontaine,  Nicolas  Denisot,  Barthelemy  Aneau,  Guillaume  des 
Autelz,  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  Sebastien  Castellion,  Hugues 
Salel,  Jean  de  Boyssonne,  and  other  minor  characters  of  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  have  tried  to  do  for  Fontaine, 
whose  name  once  resounded  in  France  as  the  cherished  darling  of 
the  Muses.  As  time  passes,  it  becomes  more  and  more  evident 
that  only  when  all  the  secondary  writers  of  the  period  mentioned 
shall  have  been  treated  can  a  definitive  history  of  the  Pleiade  be 
written. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  Goujet's  article  in 
the  Bibliotheque  franqoise  has  been  the  authority  for  the  events  of 
Fontaine's  life.  Unfortunately,  the  industrious  abbe's  biography 


vi  PREFACE 

ends  with  the  year  1547.  By  a  searching  examination  of  the 
works  of  Fontaine  and  of  his  contemporaries,  and  with  the  aid  of 
a  handful  of  documents,  I  have  been  able  to  extend  Goujet's 
account  by  some  seventeen  years  and  to  supply  many  details  that 
escaped  his  notice.  In  addition,  I  have  sought  to  give  a  clear  idea 
of  Fontaine's  score  of  works,  and  to  determine  his  place  in  the 
literary  history  of  the  Renaissance. 

In  dealing  with  the  punctuation,  spelling,  and  accentuation  of 
the  writers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  have  followed  (except  in 
the  Bibliography)  what  seems  to  me  the  most  rational  course. 
The  punctuation  has  been  changed  only  in  the  case  of  obvious 
errors.  In  the  spelling  I  have  substituted  v  for  consonant  u  and 
;  for  consonant  i.  I  have  supplied  all  missing  accents.  If,  in  the 
reproduction  of  a  text,  a  close  adherence  to  the  original  accentu- 
ation is  obligatory,  in  a  piece  of  historical  research  the  rectifica- 
tion of  an  inconsistent  and  often  puzzling  system  of  accentuation 
is  merely  a  favor  that  the  reader  has  a  right  to  expect. 

To  the  study  of  Fontaine  I  have  appended  a  short  notice  on  his 
son  Jean.  I  have  also  added  a  minute  bibliography  of  the  works 
of  Fontaine  which  will,  I  hope,  be  of  assistance  to  future  workers. 

On  account  of  the  European  War,  I  have  been  unable  to  verify 
page  references  and  quotations  as  carefully  as  I  should  have  done 
under  normal  conditions. 

I  am  under  the  deepest  obligations  to  several  of  my  friends  and 
teachers  at  Harvard.  I  am  especially  indebted  to  Professor  E.  S. 
Sheldon,  Professor  C.  H.  C.  Wright,  and  Professor  A.  F.  Whittem, 
who,  in  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript  and  in  the  reading  of 
the  proof,  have  given  me  the  benefit  of  their  encouragement  and 
criticism.  I  am  also  indebted  to  Professor  C.  H.  Grandgent  and 
Professor  J.  D.  M.  Ford  for  their  kindly  suggestions  and  correc- 
tions. To  Professor  Abel  Lefranc,  of  the  College  de  France,  under 
whose  direction  I  began  my  work,  I  am  obliged  for  his  stimulating 
lectures  and  his  friendly  inspiration.  To  Miss  Caroline  Ruutz- 
Rees,  of  Greenwich,  Connecticut,  I  owe  several  important  pieces 
of  information.  I  am  pleased  also  to  acknowledge  kindnesses 


PREFACE  vii 

received  from  M.  Gustave  Macon,  of  the  Bibliotheque  du  Cha- 
teau de  Chantilly,  and  from  the  authorities  of  the  other  libraries 
in  which  I  have  worked  —  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  the 
Bibliotheque  de  1'Arsenal,  the  Bibliotheque  Sainte-Genevie've, 
the  Bibliotheque  Mazarine,  the  Bibliotheque  de  la  Sorbonne, 
the  Bibliotheque  de  la  Ville  de  Lyon,  the  British  Museum,  and 
Harvard  University  Library. 

R.  L.  H. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS, 
May  24,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  EARLY  YEARS 3 

II.  THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  CLEMENT  MAROT  AND  FRANCOIS 

SAGON 15 

III.  EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  AND  MARRIAGE   ....  41 

IV.  LYONS 56 

V.  THE  "  QUERELLE  DES  AMIES." — THE  PLATONISM  OF  CHARLES 

FONTAINE 70 

VI.  A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE 120 

VII.  FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE.  I ' .  .  .  .  143 

VIII.  FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE.  II 169 

IX.  THE  TRANSLATOR  195 

X.  THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 209 

XL  CONCLUSION 224 


APPENDIX 241 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 244 

INDEX 271 


CHARLES  FONTAINE 


MAISTRE   CHARLES   FONTAINE 
PARISIEN 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  YEARS 

Birth.  —  Family.  —  College   du   Plessis.  —  Lecteurs   royaux.  —  Pierre   Danes.  — 
Choice  of  a  career.  —  Correspondence  with  Jean  Dugue. 

CHARLES  FONTAINE,  the  son  of  a  merchant,  was  born  at  Paris, 
on  July  13,  1514,  in  a  house  situated  in  front  of  Notre-Dame: 

Dieu  gard  Paris,  le  chef  de  France, 
Qui  est  le  lieu  de  ma  naissance  .  .  . 
Dieu  gard  ma  maison  paternelle, 
Au  beau  milieu  de  1'isle  belle, 
Maison  assize  vis-a-vis 
De  Nostre-Dame  et  du  parvis, 
Qui  a  la  belle  fleur  de  France x 
Pour  son  enseigne  et  demontrance.2 

Le  trezieme  du  moys  fus  ne 
Qui  de  Jules  porte  le  nom.3 

As  for  the  year  of  Fontaine's  birth,  the  abbe  Goujet  seems  to  have 
drawn  the  wrong  conclusion  from  the  following  extract: 4 

1  The  fleur-de-lis. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine,  Lyons,  1555,  p.  62:  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris. 
Cf.  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles,  Paris,  1554:  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de 
Paris,  stanzas  3  and  4: 

Dieu  gard  le  premier  de  1'Europe, 
Temple  en  honneur,  et  Edifice 
Haulsant  son  chef  dessus  la  trope 
Des  lieux  sacrez  au  saint  service. 

Dieu  gard  le  nid  de  la  Fontaine 

Vis-A-vis  de  ce  grand  front  double: 

Nid  qui  voit  droit  de  veu§  pleine 

Les  saints  feuz,  soil  jour,  soil  nuict  trouble. 

3  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  68:  L'Auteur  a  ses  amis,  amateurs  de  poesie. 
*  Goujet,  Bibliotheque  franq oise,  Paris,  1741-56,  vol.  xi,  p.  114. 


4  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Au  beau  milieu  de  la  grand  ville 
Sans  per,  et  au  milieu  d'une  isle 
Entre  le  Nort  et  1'Occident, 
Devant  le  grand  temple  eVident 
(Dont  le  hault  front  bien  atourn6 
De  deux  grans  cornes  est  orn£) 
Fontaine  a  pris  sa  source  et  course, 
Quand  le  Roy-Pere,  tresprudent, 
Au  fleuve  Styx  alloit  tendant 
Sans  ruisseaux  masles  de  sa  source. 
Puis  le  Roy  Franc,  qui  tint  sa  bourse 
Ouverte  aux  Muses  et  aux  ars, 
Leva  son  beau  grand  chef,  et  pource, 
Se  feit  paroistre  en  toutes  pare.1 

The  "  Roy-Pere  "  was  Louis  XII,  who  died  on  January  i,2  1515, 
and  who,  on  account  of  his  many  efforts  to  improve  the  condition 
of  his  subjects,  was  honored  by  the  States-General  held  at  Tours 
in  1506  with  the  title  of  "  Pere  du  peuple."  Louis,  the  sole 
representative  of  the  Valois-Orleans  branch  of  kings,  died  without 
leaving  "  ruisseaux  masles  de  sa  source,"  and  was  succeeded  by 
"  le  Roy  Franc,"  Francis  I,  who  during  his  reign  did  much  for  the 
advancement  of  art,  literature,  and  learning. 

Fontaine's  ancestors  came  originally  from  Clamart,  a  village 
near  Paris,  according  to  a  quatrain  addressed  by  him  to  a  friend 
of  his  youth  named  Ferrand : 

Dieu  gard  celuy  qu'en  ma  jeunesse 
J'ay  congneu  sur  nostre  Parnasse: 
Son  Clamart,  qui  nous  fait  caresse, 
M'alaicta  et  toute  ma  race.8 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  81:   L'Auteur  escrit  de  sa  naissance,  et  sous  quelz  roys  il  a 
vescu. 

2  Not  on  July  i,  as  Goujet  says.    Whether  the  lines 

Quand  le  Roy-PSre,  tresprudent, 
Au  fleuve  Styx  alloit  tendant, 

mean  when  Louis  XII  was  approaching  his  end  or  when  he  actually  died,  the 
poet  could  hardly  have  used  this  language  if  he  was  born  more  than  six  months 
after  the  king's  death.  The  usually  accepted  date  (Goujet's),  1515,  seems  wrong. 
J  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  meneiUes:  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris, 
stanza  98.  A  poet  named  Ferrand  took  part  hi  the  controversy  between  Cle'ment 
Marot  and  Francois  Sagon.  Cf.  p.  36,  note  i,  below. 


EARLY  YEARS  5 

His  reference  to  himself  in  the  last  verse  is  explained  by  the 
fact  that  he  was  sent  when  an  infant  to  Clamart,  where  he 
was  placed  under  the  care  of  a  certain  Jean  Ticier  and  his  wife: 

Dieu  gard  Clamart  et  Jean  Ticier, 
Mon  gentil  pere  nourricier: 
Dieu  gard  sa  femme  sans  malice, 
Qui  fut  ma  gentille  nourrice.1 

Only  once  does  Fontaine  mention  his  mother:  in  a  Dieu  gard  to 
the  city  of  Paris,  written  in  1547,  he  regrets  that  she  is  no  longer 
living.2  Of  his  father,  on  the  other  hand,  he  gives  a  brief  descrip- 
tion —  if  Goujet's  conjecture  is  right  —  which  indicates  that  he 
was  a  most  worthy  man,  an  honest  merchant,  who  found  time  to 
cultivate  his  mind,  to  associate  with  people  of  learning,  and  to 
teach  his  children.3  Although  the  following  lines  are  put  in  the 
mouth  of  a  young  woman,  it  is  very  probable  that  Fontaine  is 
speaking  of  his  own  father: 

En  premier  lieu  fille  suis  de  mar  chant, 
Lequel  n'estoit  usurier  ne  meschant : 
Qu'il  soit  ainsi,  on  luy  portoit  ce  nom 
Loyal  marchant:  tel  estoit  son  renom. 
Des  son  jeune  aage  avoit  science  acquise, 
Qu'il  estimoit  plus  que  sa  marchandise. 
Tousjours  hantoit  les  lectres  et  lectrez, 
Non  les  grans  gens  richement  acoustic's, 
Disant  ainsi:  ces  mollemens  vestuz 
Souvent  d'autant  s'esloignent  des  vertuz  .  .  . 
Homme  il  estoit  de  petite  parolle, 
Fors  quand  de  nous  il  tenoit  son  escole, 
J'entends  de  moy  et  d'une  mienne  soeur  * 
Dont  il  estoit  enseigneur  et  dresseur. 

The  education  begun  by  Fontaine  at  home  was  soon  supple- 
mented by  a  course  of  study  in  the  College  du  Plessis,6  where  in 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  62:  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris.          2  Cf.  p.  131,  below. 

3  The  reference  to  Fontaine's  father  occurs  in  La  Contr'amye  de  Court,  first  pub- 
lished at  Paris  in  1541.    Cf.  Goujet,  Bibl.franf.,  vol.  xi,  p.  115. 

4  Fontaine's  sister  was  named  Catherine.     At  her  death  about  1540,  Fontaine 
composed  an  elegy  which  ranks  among  his  best  productions.    Cf.  p.  186,  below. 

6  The  College  du  Plessis,  situated  in  the  rue  Saint-Jacques,  received  its  name 
from  its  founder,  Geoffroi  du  Plessis,  prothonotary  of  France,  who  stipulated  that  it 


6  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

1530,  when  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  won  the  degree  of  which  he  was 
so  proud  during  the  rest  of  his  life: 

Dieu  gard,  par  devoir  et  pour  rente, 
Le  Pleisis  que  j'ayme  et  je  prise: 
Ou,  bien  jeune,  Tan  cinq  cens  trente, 
Je  receu  1'honneur  de  maistrise.1 

The  methods  employed  in  the  colleges  of  Paris  prior  to  1530  are 
well  known.  Fontaine  was  probably  forced  to  undergo  many  of 
the  humiliating  punishments  then  inflicted  on  pupils  by  brutal 
pedagogues,  and  to  endanger  his  health  by  living  in  the  insanitary 
buildings  used  for  school  purposes.  Although  the  College  du 
Plessis  has  not  come  down  to  posterity  with  such  a  bad  name  as 
Montaigu  and  others,  we  may  be  sure  that,  so  far  as  teaching 
methods  were  concerned,  it  was  not  a  whit  in  advance  of  the 
majority  of  its  neighbors.2  It  is  likely  that  Fontaine  did  not 
derive  great  profit  from  the  instruction  offered  in  such  a  college, 
where  routine  and  the  quibblings  of  scholasticism  prevented  even 
the  most  brilliant  pupils  from  making  intellectual  progress. 

However,  if  Fontaine  harbored  resentment  towards  his  masters 
at  the  College  du  Plessis,  he  kept  silent  on  the  subject.  Besides 
the  stanza  cited  above,  he  makes  only  one  reference  to  his  college 
experience:  he  speaks  of  a  M.  Content,  who  in  1554  was  a  pro- 
cureur  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  as  his  "  Plessique  acointance, 
qui  fut  maistre  es  arts  au  college  du  Plessis  avec  1'auteur."  3 

The  year  in  which  Fontaine  obtained  his  master's  degree 
immediately  recalls  one  of  the  most  important  events  of  the 

should  shelter  only  poor  students  from  the  dioceses  of  Reims,  Tours,  Sens,  Saint- 
Malo,  Rouen,  and  fivreux.  This  rule  finally  falling  into  disuse,  the  college  opened 
its  doors  to  students  from  other  parts  of  France,  and,  together  with  its  neighbor,  the 
College  de  Mannoutier,  also  founded  by  G.  du  Plessis,  became  one  of  the  leading 
schools  of  Paris. 

1  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles:  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  mile  de  Paris, 
stanza  6. 

1  Concerning  the  filthiness  of  the  school  buildings  (especially  of  Montaigu),  the 
brutality  of  the  teachers,  and  the  senseless  curriculum  of  the  time,  cf .  the  attacks  of 
Erasmus,  Rabekis,  and  Montaigne. 

J  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles:  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris, 
stanza  57. 


EARLY  YEARS  7 

French  Renaissance  —  the  appointment  by  Francis  I,  after  some 
fifteen  years  of  vacillation,  of  five  lecteurs  royaux,  chosen  from 
among  the  foremost  scholars  of  the  tune:  Pierre  Danes  and  Jac- 
ques Toussain  in  Greek,  Frangois  Vatable  and  Agathias  Guida- 
cerius  in  Hebrew,  and  Oronce  Fine  in  mathematics.1  From  the 
nomination  of  these  five  professors  dates  the  institution  which  in 
1610  adopted  the  name  of  College  Royal,  and  later  that  of 
College  de  France. 

The  importance  of  the  appointment  of  the  lecteurs  royaux  can- 
not be  emphasized  too  strongly.  As  M.  Abel  Lefranc  remarks  in 
the  preface  of  his  history  of  the  College  de  France,  the  foundation 
of  this  college  was  not  only  a  great  event  for  public  instruction  in 
France,  but  from  it  dates  the  first  serious  step  of  the  nation 
towards  intellectual  freedom.2  Surely  a  gem  in  the  crown  of  its 
real  founders,  not  the  king,  but  such  zealous  scholars  as  Guillaume 
Cop,  Jacques  Colin,  Jean  du  Bellay,  Guillaume  Petit,  fitienne 
Poncher,  Pierre  Duchatel,  and  especially  Guillaume  Bude,  the 
dedicatory  letter  of  whose  Commentarii  linguae  graecae  (1529) 
caused  the  wavering  king  to  accede  to  the  demands  for  progress. 

The  lecteurs  royaux  began  their  duties  in  March,  1530.  It  is 
possible  that  Charles  Fontaine  was  one  of  the  eager  souls  that 
attended  the  opening  lectures  and  listened  to  truths  that  could 
not  be  got  under  the  old  system  of  education.  It  is  not  a  mere 
conjecture  that  at  this  period  Maitre  Charles  came  in  contact 
with  three  of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  the  Renaissance,  Loyola, 
Calvin,  and  Rabelais.3 

Pierre  Danes,4  the  self-appointed  head  of  the  lecteurs  royaux, 
especially  made  a  lasting  impression  on  Fontaine.  Although  the 

1  Barthdlemy  Latomus,  the  first  lecteur  in  Latin,  was  not  appointed  until  1534. 

2  A.  Lefranc,  Histoire  du  College  de  France,  Paris,  1893,  p.  vii. 

3  As  to  whether  these  three  men  attended  the  College  de  France  at  the  same 
time,  see  Lefranc,  p.  134. 

4  Danes  was  born  at  Paris  in  1497.    Endowed  with  a  powerful  mind,  he  had  no 
difficulty  in  mastering  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  medicine,  theology,  and  mathematics. 
He  wrote  little  for  publication,  and  even  showed  his  contempt  for  literary  fame  by 
signing  his  edition  of  Pliny  with  the  name  of  his  servant  Bellocirius.    To  flexibility 


8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

first  of  the  two  huitains  inscribed  by  him  to  Dan£s  was  pub- 
lished in  I545,1  it  was  evidently  written  shortly  after  the  poet's 
relations  with  Danes,  when  the  memory  of  the  latter's  teaching 
was  still  fresh: 

Seigneur,  ton  disciple  petit 
(Lequel  en  tes  doctes  lectures 
A  bien  pris  si  grand  ap6tit 
Que  souvent  dernier  en  partit 
Pour  tes  ditz  mettre  en  escritures) 
Peult  il  comprendre  assez  ta  veine, 
Ton  eloquence  des  plus  pures  ? 
Non:  tu  es  Mer,  il  est  Fontaine. 

The  second  huitain  in  honor  of  Danes  shows  that  in  later  years 
Fontaine  still  remembered  with  pleasure  the  hours  spent  with  his 
teacher.  These  verses  were  written  after  Danes  had  given  up  his 
position  as  lecteur  royal  to  enter  upon  his  successful  career  at 
court,  as  is  shown  by  the  title,  A  Monsieur  Danesius,  precepteur 
des  enfants  du  Roy  (Henry  II) : 

Mais  pourquoy  serois  je  confus 
Pres  de  ta  docte  humanite", 
Puisque  ton  disciple  je  fus 
En  la  grande  University  ?  * 

Fontaine  had  now  reached  the  age  when  youths  must  choose  a 
career  in  life,  and  without  the  least  hesitancy  or  misgiving  he 
decided  to  be  a  poet.  That  no  votary  of  the  Muses  ever  began 

of  mind  he  united  an  elegance  of  manner  and  appearance  which  brought  him  success 
at  court  and  caused  him  to  forsake  his  studies  and  public  lectures.  In  1545  he  was 
sent  as  French  ambassador  to  the  Council  of  Trent.  Henry  II,  who  treated  him  no 
less  kindly  than  Francis  I,  made  him  preceptor  of  the  Dauphin,  and,  later,  bishop  of 
Lavaur.  After  taking  part  in  the  final  sessions  of  the  Council  of  Trent  (which  did 
not  end  until  1563),  he  withdrew  from  active  life,  and  died  in  1577,  mourned  by  the 
members  of  his  diocese,  to  whom  he  had  been  kind  and  charitable.  Calvin,  Dorat, 
and  Amyot  were  among  his  most  famous  pupils. 

1  La  Fontaine  a" amour,  Lyons.  The  1546  edition,  Paris,  from  which  I  quote,  is 
not  paginated. 

*  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes,  Lyons,  1557,  p.  32.  The  lecteurs  royaux  were  often 
spoken  of  as  forming  a  part  of  the  University  of  Paris.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
Danes  ever  taught  in  the  University  proper. 


EARLY  YEARS  9 

his  labors  with  higher  ideas  as  to  what  a  poet  should  be  or  with 
greater  confidence  and  enthusiasm  is  evident  from  a  poetic  corre- 
spondence which  Maitre  Charles  carried  on  with  an  uncle,  Jean 
Dugue,  who  did  all  in  his  power  to  dissuade  his  nephew  from 
choosing  so  unpractical  a  calling. 

Guillaume  Colletet,  in  the  unpublished  manuscript  of  his  Vies 
des  poetesfranqois,1  states  that  Jean  Dugue  was  a  native  of  Paris, 
and  that  his  life  was  so  devoid  of  noteworthy  incidents  that  only 
one  inference  is  possible:  "  c'etoit  un  homme  extre'mement  du 
commun."  Antoine  Loisel,2  on  the  other  hand,  says  that  hi  1524 
Dugue  was  an  advocate  pleading  in  the  court  of  the  Parliament 
of  Paris,  which  seems  to  indicate  that  he  was  a  man  of  some  con- 
sequence. Colletet,  however,  persists  in  the  opposite  view:  "  S'il 
fut  Demosthene  ou  le  Pericles  du  barreau,  c'est  ce  que  j'ai  peine  a 
me  persuader,  puisque  sa  froide  rimaille  me  fait  paroitre  qu'il 
etoit  denue  de  cette  evidente  vigueur  qui  fait  les  bons  orateurs 
aussi  bien  que  les  bons  poetes."  The  poet  Guillaume  des  Autelz, 
a  close  friend  and  a  correspondent  of  Charles  Fontaine,  in  a  con- 
sideration of  the  possibility  of  writing  poetry  and  attending  to 
legal  affairs  at  the  same  time,  thinks  that  Dugue  was  successful 
both  as  a  poet  and  as  a  lawyer : 3 

Je  reprenois  ma  Muse  doucement, 
Luy  amenant  pour  familiar  example 
Le  bruit  tres  bon  et  la  renommee  ample 
D'un  oncle  tien,  qui  tant  de  beaux  vers  feit, 
Et  seut  si  bien  faire  en  droit  son  profit 
Qu'en  ces  deux  artz  il  fut  grand  personnage.4 

Whether  Dugu6  was  a  good  poet  and  a  good  advocate  is  of  little 
moment.  He  gave  Fontaine  sound  advice,  and  had  the  latter 
heeded  it,  he  might  have  been  spared  many  of  the  cares  and  hard- 
ships which  beset  him  in  after  life. 

1  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Nouv.  Acq.  Fr.,  3073,  fol.  222.  Colletet  died  in  1659. 

2  Divers  opuscules  lirez  des  memoires  de  M.  Antoine  Loisel  par  Claude  Joly,  Paris, 
1652,  p.  575. 

3  Des  Autelz  too  was  a  lawyer  and  a  poet. 

4  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  229.    Colletet  cites  another  reference  to  Dugu6:  Olivier  de 
Magny  praises  his  skilful  playing  of  the  spinet. 


10  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  correspondence  between  Dugue  and  Fontaine  opens  with  a 
somewhat  flattering  epistle  by  Maitre  Charles,  which  causes 
Colletet  to  remark  that  the  youth  either  had  great  respect  for  his 
uncle  or  was  a  most  adroit  wheedler.  Fontaine  speaks  of  the 
pleasure  that  he  derives  from  writing  verses,  and  expresses  the 
opinion  that  if  his  poetry  is  not  of  the  best,  time  and  close  appli- 
cation will  bring  about  an  improvement: 

je  prens  plaisir 

En  vers  francois,  et  si  ay  grand  d£sir 
De  plus  avant  gouster  cette  science: 
En  escrivant  croistra  1'experience: 
Celuy  qui  veut  estre  en  quelque  art  parfaict 
Faut  qu'il  y  soit  par  long  temps  expert  fait.1 

He  asks  Dugue  for  advice  in  writing  poetry,  and  also  begs  leave 
to  read  Dugue's  works: 

Je  vous  pry  done  que  voz  oeuvres  a  lire 
Me  permetiez,  car  bien  fort  les  desire.2 

In  his  response  to  this  epistle,  Dugue  manifests  surprise  at 
Fontaine's  finding  leisure  to  write  poetry  and  carry  on  his  studies 
at  the  same  time: 

Premierement  j'estime  ton  Spitre 
D'autant  qu'en  vers  francoys  1'as  voulu  tistre, 
Et  cy  devant  tel  ceuvre  encor  n'ay  veu 
Qui  proce"dast  de  ton  faict,  mon  nepveu. 
Je  ne  pensois  qu'avec  la  tienne  estude, 
Ou  tu  as  pris  si  entiere  habitude 
Par  artz  humains,  querant  a  les  savoir, 
Les  vers  francoys  y  peussent  lieu  avoir: 
Peut  on  vacquer  a  la  philosophic 
Entierement,  et  en  vers  ?   Je  t'affie 
Que  difficile  il  est:  car  qui  entend 
Ensemble  aux  deux  ne  vient  ou  il  pr6tend.s 

Dugu6  then  draws  a  dark  picture  of  the  ills  that  result  from  writ- 
ing poetry.   His  own  experience  should  be  a  warning  to  Fontaine. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  294.  *  Ibid.,  p.  298. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  299.  This  extract  is  of  interest,  since  it  shows  that  Fontaine  was  a 
diligent  student,  and  that  the  two  epistles  to  his  uncle  were  among  the  first  of  his 
poetic  compositions. 


EARLY  YEARS  II 

He,  too,  when  young,  was  infatuated  with  poetry,  and  what  was 
the  outcome  ?  Instead  of  winning  honor  and  wealth,  he  suc- 
ceeded only  in  losing  the  esteem  of  his  fellow  men: 

En  ma  jeunesse,  avec  maint  autre  affaire, 
Composay  jeux  pour  honneur  et  gaing  faire 
J'ay  pour  esbat  fait  epitres  autresfoys, 
Virlais,  rondeaux,  ballades:  toutesfoys, 
Le  tout  pese,  1'yssue  est  peine  traire, 
Et  de  son  train  s'estranger  et  distraire: 
Tant  qu'en  la  fin  par  trop  les  vers  aymer 
Me  suys  trouve  peu  me  faire  estimer.1 

After  this  confession,  one  would  expect  Dugue  to  refuse  Fon- 
taine's request  for  the  loan  of  his  poems.  He  replies : 

Or,  mon  nepveu,  a  ce  que  tu  requiers 
Mes  oeuvres  voir,  et  dis  que  cela  quiers 
Pour  t'exciter,  soit  sur  table,  ou  sur  coffre, 
Tout  est  a  toy,  de  bon  cceur  te  les  offre.  .  . 
Pour  ce  travail  je  n'ay  autre  salaire 
Fors  que  j'en  puys  a  moy  ou  autruy  plaire: 
Mais  je  ne  veux  a  ce  tant  m'eschaufer, 
Car  mieux  vault  gaing  que  de  philosopher 
A  gens  qui  ont  leur  mesnage  a  conduire.2 

Dugue's  epistle  thoroughly  aroused  Maitre  Charles.  In  his 
response,  he  takes  up  Dugue's  objections  one  by  one,  and  de- 
clares that  nothing  can  keep  him  from  following  his  bent,  be  the 
cost  what  it  may.  In  answer  to  Dugue's  assertion  that  poetry 
and  philosophy  cannot  be  pursued  simultaneously,  he  says: 

Or  me  louez  qu'outre  vostre  pensee 
S'est  mon  estude  a  cet  art  avans6e: 
C'est  don  de  Dieu,  puisqu'il  en  est  donneur, 
A  luy  tout  seul  j'en  redonne  1'honneur: 
Mais  ne  pouvez  penser  qu'on  le  poursuyve, 
Et  qu'avec  luy  philosophic  on  suyve: 
Quant  a  cela,  ne  vous  responds,  sinon 
Qu'un  petit  mot:  ou  c'est  science  ou  non: 
Si  c'est  science,  en  elle  qui  se  fie 
N'est  point  contraire  a  la  philosophic : 
Philosophic,  amour  de  sapience, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  300.  2  Ibid.,  p.  301. 


12  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Est  un  chaos  plein  de  toute  science: 
Toute  science  ensemble  symbolise: 
Parquoy  cet  art  les  siens  ne  scandalise, 
S'il  ne  rencontre  un  juge  sans  saveur, 
Et  qui  ne  porte  a  science  faveur: 
Et  si  tel  juge  on  trouve,  cetuy-la 
Ne  sera  pas  Metellus  ne  Sylla, 
Ne  sera  pas  Auguste  ou  Alexandre, 
Ne  Frangoys  Roy  qui  a  la  Salamandre.1 

Fontaine  maintains  that  his  Muse  keeps  him  aloof  from  evil 
associations  and  harmful  practices: 

Me  soit  permis  done  au  lieu  de  jouer 
Hanter  cet  art  (je  dis  sans  me  louer) : 
Me  soit  permis  au  lieu  de  dez  ou  cartes, 
Et  au  lieu  d'arcs  et  sagettes  des  Parthes, 
Soir  et  matin  la  plume  manier, 
Qui  vole  mieux,  on  ne  le  peut  nier.* 

The  divine  inspiration  of  the  poet,  observes  Fontaine,  places  him 
above  the  orator: 

Si  I'orateur  doit  estre  homme  de  bien 
(Tel  les  auteurs  1'ont  defini),  combien 
Mieux  le  sera  le  seul  divin  poete, 
Qui  prend  son  vol  plus  haut  que  1'aloete, 
Porte  du  vent  et  inspiration 
D'une  celeste  et  haute  invention, 
Qui  est  fait  tel  de  Dieu  et  de  nature, 
Plus  que  par  art  et  humaine  culture  ?  * 

After  a  few  remarks  on  his  own  prose  and  poetic  style  and  on 
the  value  of  rime  in  French  poetry,  Maitre  Charles  replies  to 
Dugu6's  statement  that  a  poet's  life  is  not  a  remunerative  one: 

Ailleurs  distrait  (comme  dites)  vous  estes, 
A  vostre  estat,  pour  le  proufit  et  gaing, 
Lequel  nourrit  et  soustient  vostre  train, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  303.  2  Ibid.,  p.  306. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  307.    Cf.  Horace,  Epist.adPisones,  408-411.   In  an  epistle  to  Francis  I 
(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  10),  Fontaine  says: 

Si  &  cet  art  j'estoye  destin6 

Des  que  sur  terre  enfant  petit  f  us  n£, 

Pourrois  je  bien  de  coeur  trop  endurci 

Combatre  Dieu  et  la  nature  aussi  ? 

On  p.  10,  above,  he  expresses  the  opposite  view. 


EARLY  YEARS  13 

Qui  vous  vaut  mieux  que  de  philosopher: 

Mais  j'ayme  mieux  mon  esprit  estoffer 

De  la  richesse  et  tresor  de  science, 

Et  vivre  povre  en  paix  et  patience, 

Amy  de  pure  et  tranquille  vertu, 

Qu'  estre  en  un  bruit,  qu'estre  tres  bien  vestu, 

Et  robbe  avoir  qui  centre  froit  m'eschauffe, 

Que  luyre  en  or,  et  n'estre  philosophe.1 

After  receiving  this  epistle,  Dugue  decided  that  further  remon- 
stration  with  Fontaine  would  be  idle,  and  dropped  the  corre- 
spondence. 

Many  years  later,  in  an  epistle  to  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  Fon- 
taine expressed  deep  regret  for  not  having  heeded  Dugue's  sage 
counsel.  The  disillusioned  "  philosopher  "  lamented  that  he  did 
not  enter  the  legal  profession,  not  so  agreeable  as  the  career  of  a 
poet,  to  be  sure,  but  more  likely  to  support  a  family.  He  even 
thought  the  law  more  honorable  than  versifying.  It  will  also  be 
observed  in  the  following  extract  that  Dugue  offered  to  lend  Fon- 
taine his  law  books  and  his  personal  support,  facts  which  do  not 
come  out  in  their  correspondence: 

Si  je  pouvois  jeune  encor  devenir, 
Je  voudrois  bien  le  train  des  loix  tenir: 
Bien  qu'il  ne  soit,  avecques  sa  pratique, 
Autant  plaisant  comme  1'art  poetique 
Au  jeune  esprit,  gaillard  et  gracieux, 
Des  libres  artz  querant  champs  spacieux: 
Mais  en  haultesse  il  est  plus  honorable, 
Plus  necessaire,  aussi  plus  profitable. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  311.  —  Speaking  of  the  good  that  writers  may  accomplish, 
Fontaine  says  (ibid.,  p.  308) : 

Mais,  je  vous  pry,  Cretin  et  les  Grebans 
Ont  ilz  suyvi  du  monde  les  bobans  ? 
Ont  ilz  traicte  de  plaisirs  et  delices  ? 
Ont  ilz  escrit  pour  exciter  aux  vices  ?  .  .  . 
N'a  pas  Marot  avecques  renomme'e, 
De  toutes  pars  espandue  et  semee, 
Et,  qui  plus  est,  par  le  commandement 
Du  plus  grand  roy  dessous  le  firmament, 
Maintz  psalmes  mis  d'H6breu  et  de  Latin 
En  vers  francoys,  qu'aurons  quelque  matin  ? 

He  also  mentions  Juvencus,  Saint  Jerome,  David,  and  Job  as  men  who  strove  to 
better  mankind  by  their  writings. 


14  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Et  pleust  a  Dieu  que  mon  oncle  eusse  cru, 
Lorsque  moy  jeune,  ayant  1'esprit  trop  cru, 
Fey  grand  refus  de  la  science  suivre, 
Qui  en  honneurs  et  en  biens  le  fait  vivre: 
En  quoy  m'offroit,  pour  me  mettre  a  bon  port, 
Ses  livres  tous  avec  tout  son  support: 
Mais  e'en  est  fait,  jettS  en  est  le  d6, 
Le  sort  par  art  en  doit  estre  amende1: 
Nul  remede  autre  y  a,  tant  soit  on  sage, 
Y  obstant  1'aage,  avec  le  manage.1 

These  regrets  came  too  late,  and  were  caused  only  by  the  adversi- 
ties which  Fontaine  had  to  suffer,  adversities  which  saddened  his 
life  and  forced  him  to  seek  various  occupations  to  bolster  up  his 
shattered  fortune.  And  to  make  matters  worse,  he  was  not 
the  only  one  to  suffer.  As  he  sadly  remarks,  "  aage,  avec  le 
manage  "  prevented  him  from  completely  changing  his  mode  of 
living,  and  it  must  have  deeply  grieved  such  an  affectionate  hus- 
band and  father  to  think  that  the  rash  enthusiasm  of  his  youth 
had  reduced  his  family  to  poverty.2 

But  let  us  not  anticipate.  Let  us  return  to  Fontaine  the  youth, 
full  of  ambition,  casting  discretion  to  the  winds,  booted  and 
spurred  for  the  fray,  and  awaiting  only  an  opportunity  to  make 
for  himself  a  name  that  would  ring  from  one  end  of  France  to 
the  other.  This  opportunity  soon  came.  Shortly  after  his 
correspondence  with  Jean  Dugu6,  Clement  Marot,  the  prince  of 
French  poets,  when  attacked  in  a  most  cowardly  manner  by  an 
envious  rimester,  honored  Fontaine  by  appealing  to  him  for  aid  in 
putting  down  the  foe  of  all  true  poets. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  236.    H.  Hartmann  (G.  des  Autelz,  Zurich,  1907,  p.  xiii) 
assigns  1546  as  the  date  of  the  correspondence  between  Fontaine  and  Des  Autelz. 

2  In  an  epistle  to  Francis  I  (Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  n),  Fontaine  writes: 

Quand  on  est  jeune  en  grand  esbatement 
Pour  passetemps  et  pour  contentement 
C'est  un  plaisir  de  sonner  la  musette: 
Mais  puis  apres,  quand  1'aage  et  la  disette 
Surprennent  tost  le  podte  estonn£, 
Alors  s'en  va  son  chant  mal  entonn£, 
Diminuant  tout  petit  &  petit, 
Car  de  sonner  il  perd  tout  app6tit: 
Alors  il  hayt  sa  musette  et  sa  Muse: 
Si  elk  s'offre,  il  la  jette  et  refuse. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  CLEMENT  MAROT  AND 
FRANCOIS  SAGON 

Origin  of  the  quarrel.  —  Francois  Sagon.  —  Marot's  tribulations.  —  Sagon  attacks 
the  exiled  Marot.  —  Marot's  friends  and  disciples  defend  Marot.  —  Bonaventure 
des  Periers.  —  Charles  Fontaine's  relations  with  Marot.  —  Charles  Fontaine's  con- 
tributions to  the  quarrel.  —  Nicole  Glotelet.  —  Le  Valet  de  Marot  contre  Sagon.  — 
Calvy  de  la  Fontaine.  —  The  attacks  of  Sagon  and  his  followers  on  the  friends  and 
disciples  of  Marot.  —  Disgust  of  the  public.  —  The  Confrerie  des  Conards,  of  Rouen. 
—  Le  Banquet  d'Honneur.  —  Peace. 

THE  quarrel  between  Clement  Marot  and  Frangois  Sagon  1  began 
on  August  1 6,  1534,  when  the  two  poets  attended  the  wedding  of 
Isabeau,  sister  of  Henri  d'Albret,  and  Rene  de  Rohan,  celebrated 
at  Alengon  under  the  patronage  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre.  In 
honor  of  the  event  Marot  composed  an  epistle,  ftpttre  presentee  a 
la  royne  de  Navarre  par  madame  Isabeau  et  deux  autres  damoyselles 
habittees  en  amazones  en  une  mommerie.2  This  poem,  in  which 

1  Cf.  E.  Voizard,  De  Disputatione  inter  Marotum  et  Sagontum,  1885;  Paul  Bon- 
nefon,  Le  Dijferend  de  Marot  et  de  Sagon,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1894, 
pp.  103  and  259;  J.  Mathorez,  Un  Apologiste  de  V  alliance  franco-turque  au  XVI" 
siecle,  Francois  Sagon,  in  the  Bulletin  du  bibliophile,  1913,  pp.  105  ff. 

Of  the  two  principals  in  this  quarrel,  one,  Marot,  occupies  such  a  prominent  place 
in  French  literature  that  it  would  be  idle  to  speak  of  his  life  and  works;  the  other, 
Sagon,  would  be  quite  forgotten  to-day  had  not  his  illustrious  opponent  dragged  his 
name  down  to  posterity.  The  son  of  a  Spanish  merchant  who  settled  in  Rouen 
towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Sagon,  after  receiving  a  good  education, 
entered  the  priesthood,  and  signalized  himself  by  his  passionate  devotion  to  the 
Church.  About  1531  he  began  participating  in  the  poetic  contests  held  by  a 
religious  association  of  Rouen,  the  Confrerie  de  Vlmmaculee-Conception.  In  1544 
he  published  Le  Triumphe  de  grace,  et  prerogative  ff  innocence  originelle,  sur  la  con- 
ception et  trespas  de  la  vierge  esleue  mere  de  Dieu,  a  mediocre  collection  of  chants 
royaux,  ballades,  and  rondeaux,  which  had  been  awarded  prizes  by  the  provincial 
judges.  He  died  in  1544. 

2  Les  (Euvres  de  Clement  Marot,  Guiffrey  edition,  vol.  iii,  p.  a8oa. 

is 


1 6  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Marot's  tendency  to  Protestantism  was  only  too  evident,  was  so 
severely  criticize*!  by  Sagon  that  Marot  lost  his  temper  and 
attacked  him  with  a  poniard.  Friends  patched  up  the  difficulty, 
and  shortly  after  Marot  and  Sagon  separated,  the  latter  betaking 
himself  to  Le  Mans  with  Felix  de  Brie,  abb6  de  Saint-Ebvroul,  to 
whom  he  was  secretary. 

As  for  Marot,  he  soon  became  involved  in  a  more  serious  diffi- 
culty than  any  he  had  yet  encountered.  On  three  previous  occa- 
sions his  leaning  toward  the  Reformation  and  his  lawless  conduct 
had  got  him  into  trouble,  but,  thanks  to  influential  friends,  he 
had  escaped  almost  unharmed.  In  1534  the  charge  against  him 
could  not  be  brushed  aside  so  easily.  Francis  I  himself,  one 
of  Marot's  most  loyal  protectors,  felt  that  the  heretics  were 
making  so  bold  as  to  direct  their  shafts  against  his  royal  person. 
The  famous  affaire  des  placards  forced  Marot  hastily  to  leave 
Blois,  where  he  was  with  the  king,  and  to  seek  a  safer  refuge.  He 
fled  first  to  Bordeaux,  and  thence  to  Nerac,  where  he  hoped  to 
gain  the  protection  of  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  who  had  aided  him 
in  similar  conjunctures.  But  fearing  that  the  "  Sorbonniqueurs  " 
might  lay  hands  on  him  even  in  so  secure  a  place,  he  continued  his 
flight,  and  finally  stopped  at  the  court  of  Renee  de  France, 
Duchess  of  Ferrara.1  The  liberal  tendencies  of  this  princess 
are  well  known.  The  welcome  that  she  gave  to  Calvin  and  Lyon 
Jamet  in  the  hour  of  need  she  also  extended  to  Marot,  despite 
the  opposition  of  her  husband,  Ercole  d'Este,  a  bitter  enemy  of 
the  new  doctrines. 

Marot,  however,  soon  tired  of  exile,  and  began  seeking  to  regain 
the  favor  of  Francis  I.  To  that  end,  he  sent  the  king  an  epistle 2 
in  which  he  tried  to  explain  that  he  was  guiltless  of  the  charge 
of  heresy  and  had  had  no  hand  in  the  posting  of  the  slanderous 
placards  against  the  Mass.  This  epistle  which,  in  addition  to 
bitter  attacks  on  the  corrupt  magistrates  of  Paris  and  on  the 
"ignorant"  Sorbonne,  contained  several  well-turned  compliments 

1  Marot  readied  Ferrara  about  April,  1535. 
1  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  284. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  17 

to  Francis  I  as  well  as  the  denial  of  the  accusation  of  heresy, 
doubtless  appealed  to  the  king.  But  Marot's  denial  was  soon  be- 
lied by  an  epistle  written  to  "two  sisters  of  Savoy",1  which 
proved  conclusively  that  his  denial  was  far  from  sincere,  and 
that  he  was  as  thorough  a  Protestant  as  a  man  of  his  unstable 
character  could  possibly  be. 

It  was  natural  that  the  heretical  ideas  contained  hi  the  epistle 
to  the  two  sisters  should  attract  the  attention  of  Marot's  enemies, 
and  especially  so  on  account  of  their  appearance  at  the  time  when 
he  was  making  profuse  protestations  of  innocence  to  the  king. 
At  this  moment,  while  Marot  was  still  in  exile,  Sagon,  the  obscure 
rimester  whom  he  had  attacked  dagger  in  hand  at  Alengon,  re- 
appeared on  the  scene.  He  hoped  to  avenge  the  assault  made 
upon  him,  and  at  the  same  time  to  satisfy  his  envious  nature, 
which  could  not  brook  Marot's  success  as  a  poet.  The  laureate 
of  Rouen  also  thought  that  he  might  win  favor  by  striking  a  blow 
in  behalf  of  the  Church,  which  had  been  so  severely  handled  by 
Marot  in  the  persons  of  the  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne. 

In  1536  Sagon  published  his  first  attack  on  Marot,  a  small 
volume  of  rondeaux,  epttres,  chants  royaux,  and  dizains,  entitled 
Le  Coup  d 'essay  de  Franqoys  de  Sagon,  secretaire  de  I'abbe  de  Sainct 
Ebvroul,  contenant  la  responce  d  deux  epistres  de  Clement  Marot 
retire  d  Ferrare,  I'une  adressante  au  Roy  tres  chrestien,  Vautre  d 
deux  damoyselles  seurs.  Sagon's  method  of  attack  is  easily  charac- 
terized: base  vituperation,  interlarded  with  an  abundance  of 
such  epithets  as  "sot,"  "pou,"  "bete,"  "heretique,"  is  poorly 
disguised  under  the  cloak  of  a  defense  of  the  persons  assailed 
by  Marot. 

The  two  epistles  in  reply  to  those  of  Marot  form  the  most 
important  part  of  the  Coup  d'essay.  In  his  response  to  Marot's 
epistle  to  Francis  I,  Sagon,  after  defending  the  magistrates  whom 
Marot  had  belabored  so  soundly,  assures  his  adversary  that  he 
must  never  hope  for  the  king's  pardon,  that  new  complaints  have 
been  lodged  against  him,  that  it  has  been  proved  that  he  was  the 

1  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  307. 


1 8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

leader  in  the  affair  of  the  placards,  that  it  is  common  talk  that  he 
openly  ate  bacon  during  Lent,  and  that  his  life  has  been  a  succes- 
sion of  impure  actions.  He  then  enumerates  the  "  very  filthy 
books  "  found  in  Marot's  room  in  Paris  after  his  flight  from 
France,1  and  beseeches  him  to  mend  his  ways  and  to  strive  for 
the  salvation  of  his  soul.  Sagon's  reply  to  Marot's  epistle  to  the 
two  sisters  of  Savoy  is,  like  the  preceding  poem,  made  up  of  abuse 
of  the  basest  sort.  In  its  clumsy  verses  Sagon  seems  to  have  con- 
centrated all  his  grievances  against  his  fellow  poet. 

In  spite  of  the  diatribes  of  Sagon,  abetted  by  two  obscure 
poets,  Jean  Le  Blond  and  Charles  Huet  or  La  Hueterie,  Marot 
prudently  refrained  from  replying.  The  king's  reluctance  to 
pardon  him  gave  him  food  for  thought,  and  prevented  him  from 
cudgeling  a  man  who  posed  as  the  defender  of  the  Sorbonne  and 
the  established  faith. 

Marot's  friends,  however,  were  not  so  patient.  While  Marot 
was  still  an  exile  from  Paris,  two  of  his  disciples  espoused  his 
cause  and  defended  him  to  the  best  of  their  ability.  Bonaventure 
des  Periers,  Olivetan's  collaborator  on  the  French  Bible,  had  the 
honor  of  sounding  the  call  to  arms  to  all  the  loyal  poets  of  the 
nation.  With  the  same  fearless  spirit  that  later  prompted  him  to 
write  the  Cymbalum  Mundi,  he  also  begged  Francis  I  to  forgive 
Marot,  and  that  at  a  time  when  feeling  against  the  Reformers 
ran  highest: 

Vela  de  quoy  ma  Muse  est  anyme'e, 

C'est  qu'une  plume  orde  et  envenimee, 

Plume  d'arpye  ou  de  quelque  chouette, 

Vole  et  poursuyt  du  souverain  poete, 

Maro  frangoys,  le  renom  invincible, 

Vela  de  quoy  ...  * 

Roy  plus  qu'humain,  si  j'ose  en  ta  presence 

Seul  excuser  Marot  en  son  absence, 

Pardonne  moy  .  .  . 

Qu'attendez  vous,  O  poetes  francoys: 

Ses  bons  amys  ?    Pensez  vous  que  je  soys 

1  Boccaccio,  the  Cdestina,  and  the  Eclogues  of  Virgil  were  among  Marot's  books. 
Veld  de  quoy  was  Sagon's  motto. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  19 

Expert  assez,  ou  si  seur  de  mon  roolle, 
Pour  a  Ph6bus  porter  quelque  parolle 
De  son  Maro,  que  tout  seul  me  laissez 
Parler  pour  luy,  et  ne  vous  advancez 
A  excuser  d'iceluy  la  querelle  ?  l 

Des  Periers's  appeal  to  his  fellow  poets  was  not  in  vain.  Only 
one  of  Marot's  friends,  however,  united  his  efforts  with  those  of 
Bonaventure  while  Marot  was  still  absent  from  Paris,  and  that 
was  Charles  Fontaine.2  Many  other  zealous  champions  entered 
the  lists  after  Marot's  return  to  Paris,  but  full  credit  should  be 
given  the  two  poets  who  first  came  to  the  defense  of  their  friend 
and  master. 

It  is  likely  that  Fontaine  had  been  on  intimate  terms  with 
Marot  before  the  latter's  flight  from  Blois.  As  a  youth,  Maitre 
Charles  was,  as  we  have  seen,  ambitious  to  become  a  poet,  and 
it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  seek  the  advice  and  companion- 
ship of  the  most  popular  poet  of  the  day.  That  he  was  familiar 
with  Marot,  either  before  or  after  the  Sagon  affair,  is  proved  by  a 
dizain  entitled  A  Clement  Marot,  quand  Vauteur  alloit  disner  avec 
luy: 

Je  n'ay  veu  ton  pareil  encor 

En  douceur  de  rime  francoise: 

Car,  ami  Marot,  autant  qu'or 

Plus  qu'autre  metal  luit  et  poise, 

Tes  vers  francois  en  douce  noise 

Vont  surpassans  le  stile  antique. 

Et  croy  qu'en  ton  art  poetique 

Le  temps  a  peine  amenera 

Un  poete  si  doux-unique, 

Qui  plus  doucement  sonnera.3 

Elsewhere  Fontaine  expresses  admiration  for  Marot  as  the 
translator  of  the  Psalms: 

1  Les  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot,  Paris,  1537,  Paris  and  Lyons,  without  date: 
Pour  Marot  absent  contre  Sagon. 

1  It  is  generally  said  that  Fontaine  did  not  reply  to  Sagon  until  after  Marot's 
return  to  Paris.  It  will  be  shown  later  that  Fontaine  wrote  his  reply  in  Paris,  sent  it 
to  Marot  in  Lyons,  and  that  Marot  sent  it  to  Sagon.  Cf.  p.  22,  below. 

3  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  82. 


20  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Quand  David  voyons  en  maint  pseaume 
Parlant  francoys  par  le  royaume, 
A  qui  en  dirons  grand  mercy  ? 
A  Marot,  qui  traduit  ainsy.1 

He  also  speaks  of  Marot's  facility  and  popularity: 

Marot  pour  sa  facilite1 

Sera  leu,  comme  il  a  est6, 

Du  commun  .  .  . 

Tousjours  aura  plus  de  lecteurs 

Que  cent  et  cent  d'autres  auteurs.1 

Fontaine's  contributions  to  the  controversy  between  Marot  and 
Sagon  consist  of  a  dizain  and  an  epistle  in  French  and  a  short 
poem  in  Latin.3  As  M.  Bonnefon  remarks,  Fontaine  brought 
into  the  quarrel  more  youthful  enthusiasm  than  poetic  ability, 
and  yet  his  pieces  compare  favorably  with  the  greater  part  of 
those  that  appeared  during  the  controversy,  and  are  especially 
commendable  for  their  freedom  from  the  obscenity  and  vitupera- 
tion to  which  too  many  of  the  disputants  had  recourse. 

In  his  Latin  verses,  Fontaine  takes  Sagon  to  task  for  vilifying 
so  renowned  a  poet  as  Marot,  the  pride  of  all  France.  Inasmuch 
as  the  poem  is  written  in  Latin,  Fontaine  thought  it  fitting  to 
back  his  own  high  estimate  of  Marot  with  the  approbation  of 
three  of  the  most  famous  humanists  of  the  day,  Nicolas  Bourbon, 
Salmon  Macrin,  and  fitienne  Dolet.4  These  men,  says  Fontaine, 
have  only  words  of  praise  for  Marot;  so  why  should  you,  Sagon, 
undertake  to  belittle  him  ? 

1  La  Fontaine  d 'amour.    Cf.  p.  13,  note  i,  above. 

*  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  207. 

8  Fontaine  may  have  been  the  author  of  another  short  poem  in  Latin,  In  eum 
qui  scripsit  in  Marotum,  the  theme  of  which  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  French  dizain 
cited  on  p.  21,  below. 

4  At  a  later  date  Fontaine  could  not  have  mentioned  Dolet  as  an  admirer  of 
Marot.  Cf.  Marot's  epigram  A  Estienne  Dolet,  which  begins: 

Tant  que  voudras  jette  feu  et  fum£e, 

Mesdi  de  moy  &  tort  et  &  travers; 

Si  n'auras  tu  jamais  la  renommfie 

Que  de  long  temps  tu  cherches  par  mes  vers. 

(CEuvres  de  Cl.  Moral,  Jannet  edition,  vol.  iii,  p.  91.) 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  21 

Die  mihi,  Sagunti,  quae  te  dementia  cepit  ? 
Quae  tarn  atrox  rabies  te  tibi  surripuit  ? 
Quis  furor  insanus,  quis  te  furor  impius  egit, 
Scribendo  nomen  commaculare  tuum  ? 
Ah,  scripsisti  in  eum  quern  Gallia  tota  poetam 
(Ut  rumpare  odio)  gaudet  habere  suum. 
Num  tibi  Borbonius,  Macrinus  et  ipse  Doletus 
Sunt  tandem  visi  stringere  in  hunc  calamum  ? 
Quin  illi  vatem  vates  (ut  rite  poetam 
Addecet)  ornarunt  laudibus  immodicis. 
Scripsisti  solus:  solus  dicere  poeta. 
Scilicet  hoc  meruit  scriptio  sola  tua.1 

As  a  basis  for  his  dizain  against  Sagon,  Fontaine  makes  use  of 
the  well-known  legend  of  the  Greek  lyric  poet  Stesichorus  who, 
for  having  cast  the  blame  for  the  Trojan  War  on  Helen,  was 
stricken  blind  by  the  gods.  Sagon  is  in  the  same  position  as 
Stesichorus,  says  Fontaine.  The  Greek  poet  regained  his  sight 
only  after  a  retractation,  and  Sagon  can  hope  for  rehabilitation 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world  only  after  a  similar  procedure: 

Stesicorus,  le  poete  de  Grece, 

Apres  avoir  escript  encontre  Heleine, 

Qui  en  beaulte  a  surpass6  Lucresse, 

II  fut  puny  par  une  telle  peine 

Qu'il  ne  vit  goutte.    Or,  pour  sa  veue  pleine 

Tost  recouvrer,  luy  convint  contr'escrire. 

Ainsi,  Sagon,  il  te  convient  eslire 

De  ces  deux  cy  ou  1'une  ou  1'autre  voye: 

C'est  a  ton  ceuvre  a  present  contredire, 

Ou  que  remply  de  vergogne  on  te  voye.2 

These  two  short  poems  did  not  attract  the  attention  of  the 
"  Sagonneaux."  It  was  Fontaine's  Epttre  a  Sagon  et  a  La  Hueterie 
which  stirred  the  enemy  against  him.  Thanks  to  Sagon's  skilful 
tactics,  this  epistle  has  an  interesting  history.  In  the  edition  of 
Marot's  works  published  in  1543  by  Etienne  Dolte,  it  was  attrib- 
uted to  Marot,  and  for  a  long  time  this  attribution  was  held  to 
be  correct,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  1537,  when  the  quarrel  was 
at  its  height,  it  was  published  three  times  under  Fontaine's 

1  Les  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot, 

2  Ibid.;  also  in  Le  Valet  de  Marot  contre  Sagon,  Paris,  1537. 


22  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

name.1  Guiffrey,  the  most  competent  judge  in  the  matter,  after  a 
careful  examination  of  the  facts,  decided  that  Fontaine,  and  not 
Marot,  was  the  author  of  the  poem.  The  evidence  adduced  by 
Guiffrey  in  support  of  this  opinion  is  as  follows.2  Sagon  was  an 
arrogant  and  conceited  person,  whose  exaggerated  confidence  in  his 
own  ability  was  exceeded  only  by  his  utter  mediocrity;  so,  when 
he  received  an  epistle  directed  against  him  and  his  lieutenant,  La 
Hueterie,  and  signed  with  the  name  of  an  unknown  Fontaine,  it 
was  not  unnatural  that  he  should  try  to  ascribe  the  poem  to  his 
archenemy  Marot.  Could  he,  the  great  Sagon,  stoop  to  wrangle 
with  Fontaine  the  novice  ?  A  genius  like  him  was  destined  to 
cope  only  with  the  greatest  poet  of  the  time,  and  not  with  an 
obscure  youth  who  had  yet  to  win  his  spurs.  The  following 
verses  by  Sagon  prove  that  Marot,  by  receiving  Fontaine's  epistle 
at  Lyons  and  forwarding  it  to  Paris,  helped  his  opponent's 
scheme  to  succeed: 

Dieu  gard  Marot  qui  feit  tant  a  Lion 
Qu'il  m'envoya  une  6pistre  imprimee 
De  sa  facon,  au  mieulx  qu'il  peust  ryme'e: 
Et  pour  autant  que  Sagon  la  reprent, 
La  d&advoue  et  Fonteynes  la  prent.s 

In  another  passage  Sagon  also  attributes  the  epistle  to  Marot: 

Fonteines,  trop  heureux  serois, 
Et  tes  deux  comes  dresserois, 
Si  1'oeuvre  dont  tu  as  le  tiltre 
(J'entendz  testament 4  et  epistre) 
Estoit  corrige  de  par  moy. 
On  scait  qu'il  n'y  a  rien  de  toy  .  .  . 
Tu  faictz  en  vallet  bon  servant, 
Qui  pour  proffiter  en  service 
N'a  honte  d'advouer  le  vice 

1  Concerning  the  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot,  in  which  the  epistle  appeared,  see 
p.  19,  note  i. 


2  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  pp.  656  ff. 

1  Defense  de  Sagon  contre  Clfment  Marot,  Paris,  no  date. 


4  A  reference  to  the  Complainte  et  testament  de  Sagon,  by  Calvy  de  la,  Fontaine. 
I  shall  speak  later  of  the  confusion  of  names  which  caused  this  amusing  poem  to  be 
ascribed  to  Charles  Fontaine. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  23 

De  son  maistre  et  de  son  forfaict. 
Le  vallet  faict  son  propre  faict. 
Prenez  qu'il  ayt  faict  en  derriere 
Ung  enfant  a  sa  chambriere : 
Le  vallet  dira  qu'il  est  sien, 
Et  que  son  maistre  n'y  a  rien. 
Tu  faictz  ainsi,  Charles  Fonteynes, 
Car  j'ay  des  raisons  bien  certaines 
Que  1'epistre  et  faulx  testament 
Viennent  de  ton  maistre  Clement.1 

In  addition  to  these  points,  Guiffrey  mentions  the  fact  that  Fon- 
taine's epistle  may  have  found  its  way  into  the  Dolet  edition  of 
Marot's  works  through  the  trick  of  an  unscrupulous  editor  who 
took  advantage  of  Marot's  absence  from  Lyons. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  contents  of  the  epistle.  The  beginning 
is  remarkable  for  its  friendly  tone.  Fontaine  has  no  animosity 
toward  Sagon  and  La  Hueterie;  he  is  merely  surprised  that  the 
"  two  secretaries  " 2  have  been  so  injudicious  as  to  foist  their 
immature  productions  upon  the  public: 

Quant  j'ay  bien  leu  ces  livres  nouvelletz, 

Ces  chantz  royaulx,  epistres,  rondeletz, 

Mis  en  avant  par  noz  deux  secretaires, 

Qui  en  rymant  traictent  plusieurs  affaires, 

Je  leur  escry  par  moyen  de  plaisir, 

Sans  leur  vouloir  ne  mal  ne  desplaisir: 

Car  raison  veult  que  je  les  advertisse 

Qu'ilz  n'ont  pas  eu  du  poete  notice, 

Qui  dit  qu'on  doit  garder  ses  vers  neuf  ans, 

Pource  qu'on  doit  craindre  flottes  et  vens 

Lors  qu'on  transporte  et  qu'on  meet  en  lumiere 

Des  escrivans  leur  ouvrage  premiere: 

Laquelle  il  fault  reveoir  diligemment, 

Et  de  plusieurs  avoir  le  jugement. 

Celluy  est  sot,  qui  son  imparfaict  oeuvre 

A  toutes  gens  impudamment  descceuvre  .  .  . 

C'est  commun  diet,  on  ne  faict  rien  qui  serve, 

Quant  on  le  faict  bongre  malgre  Minerve.3 

1  Defense  de  Sagon. 

1  La  Hueterie  was  the  secretary  of  the  Duke  of  Vend6me;  Sagon,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  was  the  secretary  of  the  abbe  de  Saint-Ebvroul. 
3  Horace,  Epist.  ad  Pisones,  385-390. 


24  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Fontaine  continues  in  this  wise  for  some  time;    then  his  tone 
changes,  —  the  gauntlet  is  thrown  down: 

Je  ne  veulx  pas  pourtant  les  abaisser, 

A  celle  fin  de  mon  stille  haulser: 

Car  je  congnoys  la  petite  science 

Que  Dieu  me  donne,  et  pren  en  patience: 

Mais  seullement  je  veulx  mettre  en  avant 

Le  jugement  de  maint  homme  scavant, 

Et  de  plusieurs  qui  leurs  maistres  seroient, 

Quant  en  cest  art  leur  plume  adresseroient. 

Je  ne  veulx  donq  trencher  du  paragon, 

Pour  me  monstrer  ennemy  de  Sagon : 

Je  ne  pretendz  ne  plaid  ne  huterie 

Avec  Sagon,  ne  La  Hueterie: 

Ce  non  obstant,  s'ilz  en  veulent  a  moy, 

Je  n'en  seray  (ce  croy  je)  en  grand  esmoy: 

Car  je  veoy  bien  a  peu  pres  que  leur  veine 

Est  ung  petit  trop  debile  et  trop  vaine 

Pour  bien  jouer:  cela  tres  bien  je  scay 

A  veoir  sans  plus  leur  povre  Coup  <T  essay. 

Si  dessus  moy  leur  chollere  s'allume, 

La  Dieu  mercy,  nous  avons  ancre  et  plume 

Pour  leur  respondre  ung  peu  plus  sagement 

Qu'ilz  n'ont  escript  tous  deux  premierement. 

The  greater  part  of  the  remainder  of  the  poem  is  devoted  to 
Fontaine's  advice  to  Marot's  adversaries: 

il  convient  garder  ryme  et  raison. 
Ryme  et  raison,  ainsi  comme  il  me  semble, 
Doivent  tousjours  estre  logez  ensemble.1 
L'homme  rassis  doit  son  cas  disposer 
De  longue  main,  avant  que  d'exposer 
Son  escripture  et  ses  petis  ouvrages 
Dessoubz  les  yeulx  de  tant  de  personnages, 
Dont  plusieurs  n'ont  mis  en  jeu  leurs  volumes, 
Combien  qu'ilz  soient  faictz  d'excellentes  plumes. 
Tant  moins  doyt  on  f aire  un  ceuvre  imprimer 
Ou  il  y  a  grandement  a  lymer  .  .  . 
Ung  bon  rymeur  qui  a  1'experience 
Que  de  nature  il  a  ceste  science, 
En  second  point  il  ne  doit  tant  errer 
Qu'il  n'ayt  povoir  de  sa  main  temperer, 

1  Cf.  Boileau,  Art  pottique,  i,  27-30. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  25 

A  ce  que  par  quelque  maniere  lasche 
Dessus  aultruy  ses  aiguillons  ne  lasche, 
Effrenement  1'assaillant  le  premier  .  .  . 
Tu  monstres  bien  ta  malle  affection 
A  1'afflige  donant  affliction. 
Ce  n'est  pas  la,  ce  n'est  pas  la  la  voye 
Pour  parvenir  a  honneur  et  a  joye  .  .  . 
Sage  n'est  pas  celluy  qui  se  soulace 
A  dire  mal,  pensant  acquerir  grace, 
Et  mesmement  qui  dit  mal  de  celluy 
Qui  ne  s'en  doubte,  et  est  bien  loing  de  luy, 
Dont  il  pretend  avoir  le  lieu  et  gaiges.1 
Mais  beau  temps  vient  apres  pluye  et  orages. 
Facilement,  et  sans  prendre  grand  soing, 
On  dit  du  mal  de  celluy  qui  est  loing, 
Que  Ton  pourroit  avoir  en  reverence 
Pour  son  scavoir,  quand  il  est  en  presence. 
Quant  telles  gens  se  cuydent  avancer, 
Lors  on  les  voyt  tant  plus  desavancer. 
II  ne  fault  pas  par  moyen  deshonneste 
Penser  venir  a  quelque  fin  honneste. 

A  common  practice  during  the  controversy  was  the  pointing  out 
of  errors  of  style  on  the  part  of  adversaries.  Fontaine  engages  in 
this  sort  of  criticism: 

L'un  va  rymant  la  Fere  contre  affaire, 

Et  1'autre  aussi  frere  contre  desplaire: 

L'autre  par  trop  les  oreilles  m'offense 

Quant  pour  allume  a  voulu  dire  accense. 

L'autre  redit  moictie  et  amytie 

En  douze  vers,  et  moins  de  la  moictie. 

L'autre  descript  apres  Dieu  scet  comment 

Ung  chascun  ciel  et  chascun  element, 

L'astronomie,  aussi  1'astrologie, 

Vous  la  diriez  estre  par  eulx  regie. 

Maistre  et  remectre,  aussi  cueurs  et  obscurs, 

Ce  sont  beaux  motz,  mais  en  ryme  ilz  sont  durs. 

Et  puys  on  veult  pour  agreable  avoir 

Oeuvre  tant  sot  et  malplaisant  a  veoir. 

Tantost  apres  vingt  et  deux  "  si  "  arrivent,2 

1  Thought  to  have  been  one  of  Sagon's  reasons  for  attacking  Marot,  valet  de 
chambre  of  the  king. 

2  In  Sagon's  reply  to  Marot's  epistle  to  the  two  sisters  of  Savoy,  twenty-two  out 
of  twenty-three  consecutive  verses  begin  with  "  si." 


26  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Qui  pas  a  pas  1'un  1'autre  s'entresuyvent. 
Puys  Sagon  fonde  en  docteur  arcadique 
Quatre  raisons  sans  texte  evange'licque. 
Aussi  plusieurs  personnages  divers 
Oncques  n'ont  peu  m'exposer  ces  deux  vers: 
"  Ton  mal  penser  meet  bien  loing  ta  pense'e 
Pres  du  soucy  de  ton  ame  offensee." 1 

Such  are  the  most  striking  parts  of  Fontaine's  epistle  in  defense 
of  Marot,  one  of  his  first  productions,  and  worthy  of  attention  for 
that  very  reason.  It  is  not  a  masterpiece,  to  be  sure,  but  a  sober 
piece  of  criticism,  of  which  a  more  experienced  writer  need  not 
be  ashamed.2  The  cowardice  of  Sagon  and  La  Hueterie  in  attack- 
ing an  absent  fellow  poet,  and  the  mediocrity  of  their  poems  are 
treated  in  a  manner  that  speaks  well  for  Fontaine's  power  of  self- 
control.  The  epistle  is  of  value  to  the  student  of  the  French  lan- 
guage of  the  sixteenth  century :  Fontaine  gives  his  ideas  on  good 
and  bad  rimes,  and  it  is  just  such  evidence  that  shows  how  the 
language  was  then  pronounced. 

In  addition  to  Fontaine,  Des  Periers's  appeal  brought  forth 
another  champion  of  Marot,  a  poet  of  considerable  erudition, 
who  took  refuge  in  the  pseudonym  Nicole  Glotelet.8  His  polemic, 
Apologie  de  maistre  Nicole  Glotelet,  de  Victry-en-Partoys*  pour 
Clement  Marot,  contre  le  Coup  d'essay  jaict  par  ung  Cerite  ou 
Mathelineux  nomme  Sagon,5  was  written  shortly  after  Marot's 
return  from  exile,  as  is  evident  from  the  opening  verses: 

Chanter  convient,  6  la  Muse  des  Muses, 
Calliope :  plus  n'est  terns  que  t'amuses 
A  deplorer  de  ton  Marot  1'absence,, 

1  For  the  allusions  in  these  verses  to  Sagon's  and  La  Hueterie's  poems,  cf. 
Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  pp.  656  ff. 

2  Cf.  R.  C.  Christie,  tiienne  Dolet,  p.  167:  "Charles  Fontaine,  whose  literary 
criticisms  are  always  marked  with  point  and  sense,  if  we  cannot  accord  to  him  the 
high  rank  as  a  poet  which  his  contemporaries  considered  was  his  due." 

3  M.  Bonnefon  conjectures  that  Glotelet  may  have  been  La  Borderie,  Papillon, 
Brodeau,  or  Claude  Collet. 

4  Vitry-en-Perthois  (Marne). 

*  Les  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  27 

Ne  comment  Gaule  estoit  de  sa  presence 
Destituee  a  grand  tort  et  grand  dueil. 
Changer  te  fault  en  rys  tes  larmes  d'oeil: 
Car  le  voycy,  le  voycy  de  retour. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Sagon  and  his  friends  Le  Blond  and  La 
Hueterie,  Francis  I  had  finally  granted  Marot  permission  to  re- 
turn to  France.  The  king,  however,  took  advantage  of  Marot's 
homesickness  by  stipulating  a  hard  condition:  the  poet  was 
required  to  make  a  public  abjuration  of  the  Protestant  faith. 
This  he  did  at  Lyons,1  and  soon  hastened  on  to  Paris,2  which  he 
greeted  with  a  Dieu  gard  filled  with  joy  and  thanks.3  The  mali- 
cious Sagon  lost  no  time  in  penning  to  Marot  a  Dieu  gard  in 
which  he  reminded  him  of  his  past  errors,  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  repentance  had  finally  entered  his  sinful  heart. 

Marot's  position  was  still  critical.  For  a  time  he  continued  the 
prudent  silence  that  he  had  observed  during  his  sojourn  in  Italy.4 
While  the  clouds  still  hovered  over  him,  he  preferred  to  entrust 
his  defense  to  the  faithful  friends  who  had  rushed  to  his  assistance. 
At  length,  feeling  that  the  horizon  had  cleared  sufficiently  for  him 
to  speak  in  his  own  behalf,  he  gave  to  the  expectant  public  his 
brilliant,  caustic  Valet  de  Marot  contre  Sagon,5  the  only  truly  re- 
markable piece  published  during  the  long-drawn  war  of  pamph- 
lets. 

The  plan  followed  by  Marot  in  his  reply  to  Sagon  is  an  excellent 
one.  He,  the  foremost  poet  of  France,  cannot  dispute  openly 
with  a  Sagon;  his  valet  Frippelippes  is  quite  capable  of  drubbing 
the  valet  of  the  abbe  de  Saint-Ebvroul.  Frippelippes  readily 
enters  into  the  spirit  of  the  quarrel,  sparing  neither  the  coarse 
epithets  nor  the  accusations  of  imbecility  for  which  Sagon  had 

1  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  554,  note  i. 

2  Marot  reached  Paris  about  the  beginning  of  1537. 

3  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  556. 

4  Before  his  return  to  Paris,  Marot  made  no  reply  to  Sagon,  except  a  few  lines  in 
a  coq-d-l'dne  to  Lyon  Jamet  (end  of  1536). 

5  Paris,  1537.    At  the  end  of  Marot's  poem  was  printed  the  dizain  by  Charles 
Fontaine  cited  on  p.  21,  above.    For  Le  Valet  de  Marot  contre  Sagon,  see  Guiffrey, 
vol.  iii,  p.  565. 


28  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

set  the  fashion.  He  tells  his  master's  assailants  that  a  response 
to  their  attacks  is  unnecessary,  —  their  own  writings  suffice  to 
convince  impartial  judges  that  the  authors  are  exceedingly 
clodpated.  However,  he  answers  the  charges  of  the  ignoramuses, 
and  then  invites  Marot's  disciples  to  lend  a  hand  in  flaying  "  the 
old  Norman  dreamer  " : 

Venez,  ses  disciples  gentilz, 
Combatre  ceste  lourderie: 
Venez,  son  mignon  Borderie,1 
Grand  espoir  des  Muses  haultaines: 
Rocher,  faites  saillir  Fontaines: 
Lavez  touts  deux  aux  veaulx  les  testes : 
Lyon,2  qui  n'es  pas  roy  des  bestes, 
Car  Sagon  Test,  sus,  hault  la  pate: 
Que  du  premier  coup  on  1'abbate. 
Sus  Gallopin,3  qu'on  le  gallope. 
Redressons  cest  asne  qui  choppe : 
Qu'il  sente  de  touts  la  poincture: 
Et  nous  aurons  Bonadventure,4 
A  mon  advis,  assez  scavant 
Pour  le  faire  tirer  avant. 
Vien,  Brodeau  6  le  puisne,  son  filz  .  .  . 
Venez  doncq  ses  nobles  enfants, 
Dignes  de  chappeaulx  triumphants 
De  vert  laurier:  faites  merveilles 
Centre  Sagon,  digne  d'aureilles 
A  chapperon.9 

1  Concerning  La  Borderie,  see  pp.  79  ff.,  below. 

2  Lyon  Jamet,  one  of  Marot's  closest  friends.    Cf .  the  famous  epistle  of  the  lion 
and  the  rat,  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  75. 

*  Almaque  Papillon  (?).    Cf.  pp.  70,  ff.,  below.  4  Des  P6riers. 

6  Victor  Brodeau,  younger  brother  of  Jean  Brodeau. 

8  Marot's  Valet  de  Marot  centre  Sagon  is  so  well  known  that  only  the  passage  in 
which  Charles  Fontaine's  name  occurs  is  cited.  —  Sagon  replied  as  follows  to 
Marot's  appeal  to  his  disciples: 

Ton  maistre  a  espoir  d'  ung  rocher, 
II  a  besoing  d'eaue  de  Fontaine: 
II  tient  Borderie  amy  cher: 
Son  amytie'  est  bien  certaine. 
S'il  faict  Brodeau  son  capitaine, 
Brodeau  ne  le  vouldra  grever. 
I) 'ung  Papillon  se  peult  saulver 
S'il  est  de  volante  nature: 
Et  ne  craindra  Sagon  trouver 
Le  secours  de  Bonadvanture. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  29 

After  the  publication  of  the  Valet  de  Marot  contre  Sagon, 
Marot  wisely  withdrew  from  the  dispute,  and  again  left  his  de- 
fense with  his  disciples.1 

It  would  be  wearisome  to  mention  the  numerous  pieces  which 
appeared  after  the  withdrawal  of  Marot,  and  which  the  press 
circulated  to  the  delight  of  the  public,  for  a  time  at  least.  As 
M.  Bonnefon  observes,  the  nature  of  the  charges  and  counter- 
charges offers  but  little  variety.  In  the  remainder  of  this  chapter, 
attention  will  be  focused  mainly  on  the  attacks  of  the  "  Sagon- 
neaux  "  on  Marot's  most  zealous  defenders,  Bonaventure  des 
Periers,  Nicole  Glotelet,  Charles  Fontaine,  and  a  poet  whose 
name  has  been  only  casually  mentioned,  Calvy  de  la  Fontaine. 
These  four  "  Marotteaux  "  especially  irritated  the  opposition, 
and  by  a  natural  confusion  of  names,  one  of  them  almost  com- 
pletely lost  his  personality  during  the  controversy:  the  writings 
of  Calvy  de  la  Fontaine  were  invariably  attributed  to  Charles 
Fontaine2  who,  of  course,  had  to  bear  the  blows  that  were  aimed 
at  his  homonym.3 

Sagon  too  calls  poets  to  his  aid: 

Venez  done,  Chartier  et  Cretin, 
Greban,  Meschinot,  et  Bertin  .  .  . 
Moulinet  avec  ton  moulin  .  .  . 
Bouchet  et  toy,  Germain  Colin; 

also  Copin,  Huet,  Mac6,  Le  Blond,  and  others.    It  will  be  observed  that  some  of 
these  poets  were  dead  in  1537. 

1  Marot  contributed  only  one  other  poem,  the  rondeau  beginning,  Qu'on  mene 
aux  champs  ce  coquardeau. 

2  The  error  is  still  common.     Several  bibliographers  ascribe  Calvy's  produc- 
tions to  Charles.    The  mistake  was  caused  by  the  fact  that  Charles  sometimes 
signed  his  pieces  C.  Fontaine,  and  Calvy,  C.  de  la  Fontaine. 

3  The  similarity  of  names  did  not  escape  Charles,  who  addressed  to  Calvy  the 
following  quatrain: 

Ton  nom  du  tout  ensemble  au  mien, 

Et  ton  coeur  espris  de  ma  Muse 

Me  lient  d'un  si  vray  lien, 

Que  de  m'excuser  n'ay  excuse  (Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  208.) 

Concerning  Calvy,  see  La  Croix  du  Maine,  Rigoley  de  Juvigny  edition,  vol.  i, 
p.  99;  Du  Verdier,  vol.  i,  p.  283;  and  especially  Ren6  Sturel,  Essai  sur  les  traduc- 
tions  du  theatre  grec  en  franqais  avant  1550,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France, 
I9I3>  PP-  269  and  637.  Besides  a  translation  of  Sophocles's  Antigone  (Sturel, 


30  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Calvy  de  la  Fontaine  wrote  two  dizains  in  behalf  of  Marot,  Sur 
la  grdce  de  Sagon  and  Sur  Charles  Hueterie,  and  two  longer  poems, 
Response  a  Charles  Huet,  diet  Hueterie,  qui  feist  du  mytouard  le  gris 
and  La  Complainte  et  testament  de  Francois  Sagouyn,  diet  Sagon, 
envoyez  a  Frippelippes,  valet  de  C.  Marot.1  Of  these  pieces,  the 
dizain  Sur  la  grdce  de  Sagon  and  the  Complainte  et  testament  are  of 
especial  interest,  since  the  "Sagonneaux"  ascribed  them  to 
Charles  Fontaine,  who  had  already  sent  them  his  epistle.  The 
dizain  runs  as  follows: 

Quant  apar  moy  je  regarde  le  stile 
De  ce  Sagon,  grand  asnier  maigre  et  sec, 
II  me  souvient  d'une  truye  qui  file, 
Ou  d'un  asnon  qui  joue  du  rebec: 
Tant  luy  siet  bien  a  jazer  de  son  bee. 
Mais  de  sa  plume  escrire  vers  propices, 
II  s'y  congnoist  comme  truye  en  espices. 
Quoy  ?  a  Clement  ilz  servent  de  feuillage. 
Vela  de  quoy  ce  veau  et  ses  complices, 
Blasmant  Marot,  font  louer  son  ouvrage. 

In  the  Defense  de  Sagon  contre  Clement  Marot,  Sagon,  continuing 
his  attack  on  Charles  Fontaine,2  ascribes  the  preceding  verses  to 
Charles: 

Mais  je  veulx  reprendre  en  passant 

Ung  poinct  ou  tu  vas  ravassant, 

Disant  d'oultrecuidee  audace 

Que  mon  maistre  n'a  nulle  grace : 

Et  qu'il  n'y  a  pas  grant  esprit 

A  la  grace  qu'il  a  escript: 

Dont  tu  as  compare  le  stille 

A  la  vieille  truye  qui  fisle. 

The  Complainte  et  testament  is  one  of  the  most  amusing  poems 
that  appeared  during  the  quarrel.  Sagon  is  represented  in  a 

pp.  643  ff.),  Calvy  made  the  following  translations:  Beroalde  [Filippo  Beroaldo] 
de  la  Foelicitl  humaine  traduict  de  latin  en  franc.oys  (1543)  and  Trots  declamations 
.  .  .,  invention  latine  de  Beroalde,  avec  un  dialogue  de  Lucien  intitule  Mercure  el 
Vertu  (1556). 

1  Calvy's  poems,  as  well  as  those  of  Des  Pe'riers,  Glotelet,  and  Charles  Fontaine, 
appeared  in  the  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot  contre  Sagon. 

2  Cf.  p.  22,  above. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  31 

melancholy  state  of  mind ;  he  feels  the  hand  of  death  upon  him. 
Frippelippes  has  dealt  with  him  so  roughly  that  he  is  ready  to 
surrender: 

Ha,  nostre  dame,  qu'esse  cy  ? 

Que  diable  ?  suis  je  encor  icy  ? 

Frippelippes,  tes  rudes  coups 

M'ont  si  bien  galle  et  secoux, 

Et  par  derriere,  et  par  devant, 

Que  je  n'en  puis  plus  hay  avant : 

Toutesfois  j'en  ay  bon  marche: 

Car  je  debvois  estre  escorche 

Comme  Marsyas. 

The  downcast  poet  frankly  admits  that  envy  alone  led  him  to 
attack  Marot,  "  the  pearl  of  French  poets  "  : 

Je  n'en  scay  point  raison  aucune, 

Sinon  que  je  y  feuz  incite 

Seulement  par  meschancete, 

Qui  tousjours  a  son  maistre  vient. 

Vrayment  tres  bien  il  me  souvient 

Qu'apres  avoir  revisite, 

Reveu,  releu,  refueillete 

Toutes  les  ceuvres  de  Clement, 

N'y  trouvay  ung  point  seulement 

Qui  ne  feust  bien  faict:  toutesfoys 

Je  cherchay  plus  de  mille  foys 

Qu'en  ung  seul  mot  (pour  1'en  reprendre) 

Je  le  peusse  d'aguet  surprendre. 

Ce  que  ne  peuz.    Lors  de  despit 

Me  feusse  estrangle  sans  respit, 

Si  n'eusse  faict  mon  coup  de  fol. 

In  his  despair,  Sagon  decides  to  make  his  will : 

0  Dieu,  je  suis  mallement  pris 
D'avoir  si  tres  hault  entrepris. 
O  Coup  d* essay,  tu  renouvelles 
Mes  douleurs  et  playes  nouvelles, 
De  quoy  si  tres  mal  je  me  sens 
Que  je  suis  quasi  hors  du  sens: 
Parquoy  il  convient  m'advancer 
De  mon  testament  commencer, 
Tandis  que  j'ay  tant  seulement 
Encor  un  peu  d'entendement. 


32  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

A  number  of  bequests  follow,  the  one  more  ridiculous  than  the 
other.  Sagon  begs  to  be  flayed  before  his  death,  that  he  may  not 
die  "  en  peau  de  veau."  To  Huet 

Je  donne  et  laisse  tout  expres 
De  sonnettes  ung  beau  jouet: 
Ou  bien,  s'il  vault  mieulx,  le  fouet. 

As  for  the  Coup  d 'essay, 

Je  le  bailie  sans  prendre  tresve 
A  lire  aux  Goulpharins  de  Greve 
Ou  de  1'escolle. 

If  these  worthies  decline  to  accept  the  ill-fated  volume,  it  may  be 
given  to  the  pork  butcher  or  the  butter  merchant  as  wrapping 
paper,  and  in  case  they  refuse  it,  it  may  be  used  for  a  purpose 
that  Rabelais  would  have  doubtless  recommended.  The  envious 
Sagon  bequeaths  his  venomous  tongue  to  the  gossips  and  scandal- 
mongers, with  the  suggestion  that  they  curb  it  with  a  bit  or  a  gag. 
He  then  summons  enough  strength  to  salute  his  conqueror,  the 
nimble-witted  Frippelippes: 

A  toy,  ... 

Monsieur  Frippelippes,  je  laisse, 
Pource  que  tu  m'as  bien  galle 
Et  mon  cacquet  fort  ravalle, 
Une  belle  couronne  verte 
De  laurier. 

Having  received  absolution,  Sagon  takes  leave  of  his  weeping 
friends,  and  yields  up  the  ghost. l 

Let  us  now  examine  the  attacks  which  Sagon  and  his  partisans 
directed  against  "  the  disciples  and  friends  of  Clement  Marot." 

The  author  of  the  Grande  genealogie  de  Frippelippes,  composee 
par  ungjeune  poete  champestre,2  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  "  Sagon- 

1  E.  C.  Perrow,  in  his  article  on  the  last  will  and  testament  as  a  form  of  liter- 
ature (Transactions  of  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Sciences,  Arts,  and  Letters,  vol. 
xvii,  pp.  682  ff.),  makes  no  mention  of  Calvy's  Complainte  et  testament.  Mr.  Perrow 
calls  attention  to  the  influence  of  Villon  on  the  testament  as  a  literary  genre. 

1  M.  Bonnefon  suggests  that  either  La  Hueterie  or  Mathieu  de  Vaucelles  com- 
posed the  Genealogie. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  33 

neaux  "  to  single  out  Charles  Fontaine.  In  this  poem,  the  most 
obscene  that  appeared  in  the  course  of  the  controversy,  occurs 
the  following  apostrophe  to  Frippelippes  and  Fontaine: 

Vien  fa,  Fripet,  qui  a  tout  mal  s'atirre, 
Je  te  cognoys,  j'entendz  bien  ta  satyre. 
Presumes  tu,  et  toy  et  ton  Fontaines, 
Faire  tarir  les  sources  tant  haultaines 
Au  filz  Cretin,1  dont  tout  scavoir  distille  ? 

In  the  Defense  de  Sagon  contre  Clement  Marot,  the  field  widens. 
Sagon,  the  author  of  this  volume,  devotes  a  great  part  of  it  not 
only  to  Fontaine,  but  also  to  Glotelet  and  Des  Periers.  In  a 
Dizain  de  trois  disciples  de  Marot,  Gloutelet,  Banaventure  et  Fon- 
teynes,  Sagon  accuses  these  poets  of  merely  adding  to  Marot's 
already  bad  reputation: 

D'ung  Gloutelet  Marot  a  son  besoing 

A  faict  servir  VApologie  obscure: 

Mais  il  n'est  rien  des  Muses  autant  loing. 

Graces  n'y  sont,  ne  le  facond  Mercure. 

II  est  bien  vray  qu'avec  Bonaventure 

II  rencontra  Fontaines  a  plaisir. 

Ces  troys  ont  creu  tellement  son  desir 

De  se  purger  d'erreur  vil  et  immunde, 

Qu'en  le  faisant  acquiert  par  desplaisir 

Erreur  nouveau  et  mauvais  bruict  du  monde. 

It  is  especially  in  the  Confutation  aux  disciples  dudict  Marot, 
which  forms  a  part  of  the  Defense,  that  Sagon  rebukes  Fontaine, 
Des  Periers,  and  Glotelet.  He  begins  by  chiding  Marot's  de- 
fenders for  upholding  such  an  unworthy  poet.  Why  did  not  La 
Borderie,  Lyon  Jamet,  and  the  others  to  whom  Marot  appealed 
also  come  to  his  rescue  ? 

Je  n'entendz  pas  que  ce  peult  estre, 
Si  non  que  chacun  d'eux  s'est  teu, 
Faisant  de  silence  vertu: 
Et  en  cela  le  monde  estime 
Qu'ilz  ont  augmente  leur  estime: 
Et  non  ceulx  qui  se  sont  nommez, 
Pour  estre  au  peupte  renommez 
Par  moyen  des  Muses  haultaines. 

1  That  is,  Sagon. 


34  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Sagon  names  the  trio  against  whom  he  has  a  particular  grudge, 
and  warns  them  that  he  is  going  to  deal  harshly  with  them: 

Tu  en  es  ung,  Charles  Fonteynes, 
Toy  1'autre,  ignare  Gloutelet: 
Non  pas  ignare,  mais  follet, 
Ou  ne  cheust  one  la  congnoissance 
Qu'il  faisoit  oultre  sa  puissance. 
Bonaventure  est  des  mignons, 
Et  bien  souvent  des  compaignons, 
Quant  il  faict  au  maistre  lecture. 
A  ces  troys  vueil  faire  droicture, 
Les  remercyant  grandement 
D 'avoir  mys  leur  entendement 
A  porter  1'honneur  de  leur  maistre. 

Glotelet  is  the  first  object  of  Sagon's  wrath.  Sagon  is  of  the 
opinion  that  Glotelet  alone  did  not  write  the  Apologie  to  which 
his  name  was  attached,  but  that  it  was  the  result  of  the  collabora- 
tion of  Glotelet,  Marot,  and  a  mysterious  third  person  of  Angers 

or  Poitiers: 

II  est  done  a  maistre  Clement, 
Qui  1'a  refondu  en  sa  forge: 
Non  est,  j'ay  menty  par  la  gorge: 
II  seroit  plus  tost  a  un  tiers 
D'Angiers  (ce  me  semble)  ou  Poictiers, 
Qui  premier  a  basty  1'ouvrage: 
L'autre  le  meit  en  dur  langage, 
Et  1'ung  des  trois  plus  delinquent 
L'a  faict  ung  peu  plus  eloquent. 
Par  quoy  veritable  me  semble 
Que  1'ceuvre  est  a  tous  trois  ensemble. 

Sagon  next  assails  Fontaine,  and  as  usual  seems  to  regard  him  as 
the  chief  of  the  "  Marotteaux."  He  repeats  the  charge  that 
Fontaine  had  no  hand  in  the  composition  of  the  Epitre  a  Sagon  et 
a  La  Hueterie: 

O  menteur  en  choses  certaines, 
Nommeray  je  Charles  Fontaines  ? 
L'esprit  m'enhorte  et  dist  que  non, 
Puis  qu'il  ne  preste  que  le  nom: 
Toutesfoys  icy  je  le  nomme, 
Affin  de  veoir  1'herreur  de  Thornine. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  35 

Qui  te  faict  disciple  a  louer 
Pour  malfaict  d'aultruy  advouer  ? 
Scais  tu  pas  bien  que  ton  epistre 
Est  trois  fois  imprimee  au  tiltre 
De  Marot,  ton  maistre  et  regent  ? 
T'a  il  donne  or  ou  argent 
Pour  confesser  1'epistre  tienne, 
Qui  en  son  erreur  estoit  sienne  ? 
L'escript  que  j'y  ay  respondu 
Avoit  ce  rat  pelS  tondu.1 

Des  Periers's  turn  comes  next.  He  offended  Sagon  deeply  when 
he  began  his  Pour  Marot  absent  contre  Sagon  with  Sagon's  motto, 
Veld  de  quoy: 

Me  tiendray  je  muet  et  coy 
Au  chififreur  de  Vela  de  quoy  ? 
Ce  mot  est  ce  pas  ma  devise  ? 
Bonaventure,  je  t'advise 
Qu'ayant  par  ce  mot  commence, 
Ton  sot  escript  m'a  offense. 
As  tu  point  eu  temps  et  espace 
A  commencer  d'une  autre  grace  ? 

After  a  few  remarks  on  Des  Periers's  prosody,  Sagon  closes  the 
Confutation  with  a  reference  to  the  anonymous  defenders  of 
Marot: 

Aultres  disciples  ont  escript, 

Lesquelz  ont  eu  meilleur  esprit 

Que  vous  trois  d'une  seule  chose, 

Qu'aucun  d'iceulx  nornmer  ne  s'ose. 

Ilz  sont  sages  et  bien  discretz 

D 'avoir  tenu  leurs  noms  secretz. 

Au  moins  si  Pceuvre  on  veult  reprendre, 

On  ne  sgaura  a  qui  s'en  prendre.2 

1  Sagon's  response  to  Fontaine's  epistle  cannot  be  found.   The  expression  rat 
peU  refers  to  Marot,  who  had  been  rappele  from  Italy  by  Francis  I. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  his  epistle  Fontaine  criticized  the  poetic  ability  of 
Sagon  and  La  Hueterie  and  their  choice  of  rimes.  Sagon  devotes  several  pages  of 
the  Confutation  to  picking  flaws  in  Fontaine's  verses.  His  criticisms  are  so  puerile 
and  are  couched  in  such  grotesque  language  that  they  are  quite  unworthy  of  re- 
production. 

2  The  Defense  de  Sagon  contains  several  woodcuts  which  are  as  inane  as  the 
poems  they  accompany.  Apiece  entitled  Pour  les  disciples  de  Marot.  Le  page  de  Sagon 


36  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  quarrel  had  now  lasted  for  months,  some  thirty  pamphlets 
had  been  circulated,  and  still  the  end  seemed  far  distant.  A  great 
number  of  more  or  less  obscure  rimesters  had  taken  sides  with  one 
or  the  other  of  the  principals,1  and  ground  out  French,  Latin,  and 
Greek  poems.  The  dispute  was  becoming  uninteresting  on 
account  of  its  onesidedness.  Marot,  reenforced  by  Des  Periers, 
Charles  Fontaine,  Calvy  de  la  Fontaine,  Claude  Collet,  Glotelet, 
and  numerous  unknown  and  anonymous  writers,  had,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  public,  routed  the  opposition.  In  the  beginning, 
readers  had  manifested  the  deepest  interest  in  the  controversy, 
but  when  it  developed  into  a  seemingly  interminable  squabble, 
interest  gave  way  to  disgust.  An  anonymous  writer,  for  instance, 
protested  thus: 

Un  autre  mal  advient  de  vos  debats: 
On  voit  crier  et  battre  haut  et  has 
Tant  de  criards,  criant  de  tous  cotes, 
Les  gens  en  ont  les  cerveaux  assotes 
Et  6tourdis:  car  un  petit  follet 
S'en  va  criant  le  Dtbat  du  valet 
Clement  Marot  centre  Francois  Sagon: 
Un  autre  vient  qui  crie  en  son  jargon, 
Portant  o  soi  de  papiers  un  paquet: 
Qui  veut,  qui  veut  le  Rabais  du  coquet 
De  Frippelippes  et  de  Marot  Clement, 
Dit  rat  pele? 

parle  d  eulx  is  embellished  with  a  woodcut  representing  a  marsh  and  croaking  frogs, 
with  the  inscription  Procter  loquacitatem  habent  nihil.  The  Confutation  is  preceded 
by  a  woodcut  showing  four  dogs  baying  at  the  moon,  with  the  inscription  Pro  con- 
suetudine  latrant,  all  an  allusion  to  the  stupidity  of  Marot's  followers  in  replying  to 
Sagon's  Coup  d'Essay.  At  the  end  of  the  volume  is  a  woodcut  in  which  Glotelet, 
Claude  Collet,  Des  Periers,  and  Charles  Fontaine  are  shown  in  a  cage  with  a  parrot, 
while  Mathieu  de  Boutigny,  Sagon's  page,  delivers  them  a  lecture  from  the  outside. 
The  following  inscription  is  intended  to  add  piquancy  to  the  illustration:  Nephanda 
loquuti,  discite  a  Psitaco  perfectiora  loqui.  These  and  other  woodcuts  are  repro- 
duced in  Guiffrey,  vol.  i. 

1  For  example,  "  Sagonneaux  ":  Nicolas  Denisot,  Francois  Denisot,  and  Fran- 
cois Roussin;    "Marotteaux  ":    Francois  Ferrand,  Francois  Gaucher,  Christophe 
Richer,  Benedictus  Serhisaeus,  Janus  Parrhasius,  Jacques  de  Mabr6e,  and  Edmond 
de  Noue. 

2  M.  Bonnefon,  from  whom  I  take  this  quotation  and  the  following  one,  has  mod- 
ernized the  orthography.    Cf.  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  pp.  276  and  266. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  37 

The  virtual  surrender  of  Sagon  hastened  the  end  of  the  dispute. 
In  an  epistle  to  Marot  he  says: 

Prends  le  cas  que  je  te  blessai, 

Marot,  ce  fut  d'un  coup  d'essai 

Qui  de  plus  pres  suit  1'aventure 

Que  la  malice  de  nature. 

Si  tu  avais  cceur  ennobli, 

Ta  vertu  1'eut  mis  en  oubli 

Et  n'en  ferais  memoire  aucune 

Par  remords  d'envie  ou  rancune. 

J'ai  eu  raison  de  1'avoir  fait 

Au  temps  que  ton  vice  et  forfait 

T'avait  contraint  quitter  la  France. 

Maintenant  tu  as  delivrance: 

Bien  de  par  Dieu  j'en  suis  joyeux 

Si  ton  malfait  se  change  en  mieux  .  .  . 

Et  toutefois  n'est  le  moyen 

Comme  il  faut  vivre  en  bon  Chretien. 

On  n'acquiert  la  gloire  eternelle 

Par  dissension  f raternelle : 

Par  opprobre,  injure  ou  medits 

On  s'eslongne  du  paradis, 

Et  pour  trouver  misericorde 

Faut  oublier  toute  discorde. 

Feeling  that  the  quarrel  was  too  long-drawn,  peacemakers 
began  to  crop  up.  Germain  Colin  Bucher  and  several  anonymous 
writers  endeavored  to  reconcile  the  disputants,  but  to  no  avail. 
Finally  the  wrangle  became  insufferable,  and  the  whole  matter 
was  taken  in  hand  by  a  frolicsome  society  of  Rouen,  the  Con- 
frerie  des  Canards,  which  made  a  practice  of  ridiculing  the  absurd- 
ities that  came  under  its  observation.  After  several  publications, 
in  which  the  jesters  of  Rouen  showed  a  tendency  to  uphold 
Marot,  there  was  issued  a  pamphlet,  Le  Banquet  d'Honneur  sur 
la  paix  faite  entre  Clement  Marot,  Franqoys  Sagon,  Frippelippes, 
Hueterie  et  autres  de  leurs  ligues  (1537),  in  which  peace  is  sup- 
posed to  be  made  between  the  warring  factions. 

The  Banquet  d'Honneur  is  not  at  all  favorable  to  Sagon.  It 
reflects  the  feelings  of  the  general  public,  and  indicates  that 
Sagon's  unmanly  attack  on  the  banished  Marot  was  condemned 


38  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

by  all  unprejudiced  minds.  The  poem  is  of  importance  for  the 
history  of  Charles  Fontaine's  career.  It  shows  that  a  disin- 
terested contemporary  regarded  him  as  Marot's  chief  ally.  He 
was  the  only  one  of  the  "  Marotteaux  "  chosen  to  accompany  his 
master  and  Frippelippes  to  the  closing  scene  of  the  dispute. 

The  plan  of  the  Banquet  d'Honneur  is  ingenious.  The  author 
supposes  that,  while  out  walking  one  morning,  Honneur  meets 
Hermes  on  his  way  to  Paris.  In  reply  to  Honneur's  request  for 
the  news  of  the  day,  Hermes  says  that  a  single  topic  is  occupying 
the  minds  of  the  people:  two  dolts,  Sagon  and  La  Hueterie,  have 
had  the  temerity  to  attack  Clement  Marot,  and  their  outrageous 
conduct  has  caused  a  scandal.  Upon  ascertaining  the  cause  of 
the  misunderstanding  between  the  poets,  Honneur  decides  to 
effect  a  reconciliation.  To  that  end,  he  asks  Hermes  to  invite  the 
disputants  to  a  banquet  which  he  purposes  to  give  on  Mount 
Parnassus.  Choosing  a  suitable  place,  Hermes  sounds  his  trum- 
pet thrice,  and  issues  the  following  invitation: 

Venez  y  tous,  entre  autres,  viens,  Marot, 
Viens  tost,  page,  laisse  brusler  ton  rost. 
Suis  ton  maistre  Sagon,  toy,  Hueterie, 
Fais  bonne  mine  et  garde  que  ne  rye. 
Frippelippes,  ne  demeure  derriere, 
Aupres  ton  maistre  auras  place  premiere. 
Viens  y  aussi  tost,  Charles  Fontaines, 
Fort  estime  des  Muses  tres  haultaines. 

Both  sides  make  ready  to  go  to  the  banquet.  Upon  reaching 
Parnassus,  Marot,  Frippelippes,  Charles  Fontaine,  and  the  abbe 
des  Conards  ascend  without  difficulty.  Honneur  receives  them 
most  cordially.  But  what  has  become  of  Sagon  and  his  band  ? 
Honneur,  despairing  of  their  ever  being  able  to  climb  the  mount, 
opens  the  banquet  without  them.  Marot  and  his  followers  are 
preparing  to  enjoy  themselves,  when  a  most  wretched  company 
arrives,  tattered  and  torn  and  out  of  breath:  it  is  the  "  Sagon- 
neaux,"  who  had  overestimated  their  acquaintance  with  the  tor- 
tuous paths  of  Parnassus.  As  soon  as  the  belated  guests  recuper- 
ate, Honneur  provides  them  with  seats,  and  the  banquet  begins. 


THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN  MAROT  AND  SAGON  39 

Beau-parler,  Taire,  Loyaute,  Courtoisie,  and  Vaillance  are  among 
the  banqueters.  The  feast  ended,  Honneur  makes  inquiries  con- 
cerning the  causes  of  the  quarrel  between  Marot  and  Sagon. 
Marot  informs  him  that  Sagon  is  to  blame: 

En  mon  absence  il  feist  son  Coup  d'essay, 
Pensant  que  plus  en  France,  bien  le  scay, 
Venir  ne  deusse,  et  que  de  prime  face 
II  obtiendroit  mon  lieu  royal  et  place. 

Marot  then  enumerates  the  slanderous  writings  circulated  by 
Sagon,  La  Hueterie,  and  their  partisans.  During  Marot's  dis- 
course Sagon  fidgets  in  his  seat,  and  finally,  terror-stricken,  blurts 
out: 

Helas,  respond  Sagon,  mes  vrays  amys, 
Je  recongnois  les  faultes  qu'ay  commis: 
Pensant  avoir  bruit  et  renom  d'escrire, 
Contre  1'honneur  de  Marot,  pour  vray  dire, 
En  mes  escriptz  ay  mis  plus  de  cent  mots 
Pour  faire  rire,  ainsi  comme  ung  marmot 
Qui  contrefait  tout  cela  qu'il  voit  faire, 
Ou  pour  le  moins  tasche  a  le  contrefaire. 

After  throwing  a  part  of  the  blame  on  La  Hueterie,  Sagon  begs 
Marot's  forgiveness,  and  obtains  it.  Honneur  then  draws  up 
articles  of  peace,  in  which  he  declares  that  if  his  guests  ever  en- 
gage in  another  such  quarrel,  they  cannot  hope  to  be  received 
again  in  his  palace. 

The  Banquet  d 'Honneur  had  the  desired  effect.  Such  a  stinging 
rebuke  from  a  citizen  of  his  native  city  was  more  than  the  pride  of 
Sagon  could  bear.  He  awoke  to  the  fact  that  everybody  shared 
the  opinion  of  fitienne  Dolet: 

Dum  tu  Marotum  scripto 

inepto  et  ridiculo 
Lacessis,  ac  stulte  exagitas, 

quidnam  fads, 
Sagonte  ?    Te  praebes  stolidum 

atque  ridiculum.1 

1  Stephani  Doleti  Galli  Aurelii  Carminum  libri  quatuor,  Lyons,  1538,  p.  30. 


40  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Sagon  eased  his  wounded  feelings  by  hurling  a  few  parting  shafts 
at  Marot  and  the  Conards,  and  then  retired  to  a  secluded  spot, 
far  from  the  jeers  of  the  world.1 

On  the  whole,  the  controversy  between  Marot  and  Sagon  was  a 
ridiculous  and  puerile  affair;  at  no  time  did  it  assume  the  aspect 
of  a  true  literary  quarrel.  Obscenity,  vituperation,  and  nonsense 
were  too  often  mistaken  for  wit  and  satire.  As  one  glances  over 
the  large  number  of  pieces  published  before  the  Banquet  d'Hon- 
neur  called  a  halt,  one  readily  sees  that  only  a  few  are  worthy  of 
attention.  Marot's  Frippelippes  was  the  hero  of  the  dispute,  and 
resounding  were  the  whacks  that  he  administered  to  his  adversa- 
ries; Calvy  de  la  Fontaine's  Complainte  et  testament  is  commend- 
able for  its  humor;  Charles  Fontaine's  epistle  is  noteworthy  for 
its  straightforward  criticisms,  its  moderation,  and  its  lack  of 
coarseness;  the  Banquet  d'Honneur,  beneath  a  barbarous  style, 
hides  a  clever  plan.  Not  a  single  contribution  by  the  "  Sagon- 
neaux  "  is  of  sufficient  merit  to  leave  the  slightest  favorable 
impression  on  the  mind  of  the  reader. 

Despite  the  childish  nature  of  the  quarrel,  it  occurred  at  a  most 
opportune  time  for  Charles  Fontaine.  One  of  the  first  to  take  up 
the  cudgels  for  Marot,  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Sagon  and  his 
adherents  throughout  the  course  of  the  controversy,  and  played 
a  prominent  part  in  the  poem  that  brought  it  to  an  end.  Such  an 
intimate  connection  with  the  most  celebrated  poet  of  the  period 
could  but  work  to  Fontaine's  advantage.  Although  only  twenty- 
three  years  old  when  the  Banquet  d'Honneur  appeared,  his  name 
had  already  become  a  familiar  one  in  the  world  of  letters. 

1  At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1544,  before  August  19,  Sagon  was  the  parish  priest 
at  Se'rigny.  Marot  also  died  in  1544,  probably  in  August. 


CHAPTER  III 

EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  AND  MARRIAGE 

Friends  and  eulogists.  —  Francis  I.  —  Saint  Augustine's  Premier  livre  de  la  pr6- 
destination  des  sainctz.  —  Fontaine's  prose.  —  The  Duke  of  Orleans.  —  Rene"e  de 
France.  —  Italy.  —  Ferrara.  —  Lyon  Jamet.  —  Death  of  Catherine  Fontaine.  — 
Fontaine  weds  Marguerite  Carme. 

THERE  has  never  been,  perhaps,  more  jealousy  and  bickering 
among  literary  men  than  during  the  Renaissance  in  France: 
Sagon  assailed  Marot,  and  Marot  fell  out  with  Dolet;  Dolet 
quarrelled  with  Ducher,  Voulte,  and  Rabelais;  Mellin  de  Saint- 
Gelais  tried  to  belittle  the  verses  of  his  younger  and  more  gifted 
rival,  Ronsard;  Guillaume  des  Autelz  felt  bound  to  reply  to  the 
"  furious  defense  "  of  Louis  Meigret;  Jules-Cesar  Scaliger,  a 
most  cantankerous  person,  sought  to  disparage  Rabelais;  Jacques 
Charpentier  wrangled  with  Ramus,  and  caused  his  murder  at  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew.  On  the  other  hand,  friends 
have  never  showered  more  extravagant  eulogies  upon  one  another 
than  during  the  sixteenth  century  in  France,  when  it  was  quite 
the  fashion  for  acquaintances  to  insert  verses  of  praise  in  almost 
every  volume  published.  Between  these  extremes,  envious  vitu- 
peration and  jealous  quarrels  on  the  one  hand,  and  indiscriminate 
eulogy  on  the  other,  there  was  a  mean  which  is  worthy  of  consider- 
ation. If  a  writer  could  win  the  praise  of  confreres  who  were 
strangers,  or  at  least  not  close  friends,  such  praise  probably  repre- 
sented the  true  feelings  of  the  eulogists.  After  the  close  of  the 
controversy  between  Marot  and  Sagon,  Charles  Fontaine  re- 
ceived just  such  praise.  Two  poets,  strangely  enough  both  Latin 
poets,  with  whom  in  all  likelihood  he  did  not  have  an  intimate 
acquaintance,  spoke  of  him  and  his  writings  in  laudatory  terms 


42  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

in    1538,   the  year  following   the   appearance  of  the  Banquet 
d'Honneur.1 

Nicolas  Bourbon,  or,  as  he  is  better  known,  Borbonius,  the  cele- 
brated humanist,  whose  poems  teem  with  valuable  information 
concerning  the  men  of  letters  of  the  time,  pays  the  following 
tribute  to  Fontaine's  verses: 

Rythmos  tuos  vernaculos,  Musam  tuam 

Lingua  loquentem  patria, 

Mirantur  omnes,  Carole,  et  merito  quidem: 

Nam  sermo  per  te  Gallicus 

Illustrior  multo  nitet,  et  iucundior, 

Fluitque  multo  purior.2 

Jean  Voulte,  or  Vulteius,  who,  as  a  Latin  poet,  was  as  famous 
as  Borbonius,  not  only  sings  the  praises  of  Maitre  Charles,  but 
gives  a  brief  description  of  his  personal  appearance,  according  to 
which  he  was  small  in  stature  and  had  red  hair : 

Qui  te  credidit  esse  me,  parum  ille 
Vidit,  Carole:  nam  nihil  duobus 
Nobis  dissimile  est  magis,  tui  seu 
Spectes  corporis  ipsius  figuram, 
Dotes  seu  ingenii  pii  beatas. 
Ruffum  te  audio,  ruffus  ipse  non  sum. 
Parvo  in  corpore  te  fovere  magnas 
Virtutes  scio,  sentio  in  sat  amplo 
Nullas  corpore,  vel  leves  profecto. 
Ad  haec  carmine  Gallico  domare 
Tigres  vel  rapidas  potes,  vel  ipsas 
(Durae  sint  licet)  excitare  quercus: 
Contra  carminibus  meis,  Latina 
Condo  quae  male,  concito  in  furorem 
Jam  mites  iterum  feras:  et  ut  res 
Concludam  quod  habet  semel,  mibi  te 
Qui  dixit  similem  est  vel  arbitratus 
Te  esse  me,  hunc  puto  turn  fuisse  caecum. 
Quod  si  esses  (ut  ais)  poeta  qui  sum, 

1  Fontaine's  contributions  to  the  quarrel  between  Marot  and  Sagon  were  not  the 
only  poems  that  he  produced  prior  to  1538.  In  1537  he  published  a  reply  to  Alma- 
que  Papillon's  Vicloire  et  triumphe  d' Argent;  a  synopsis  of  this  reply  will  be  given  in 
chapter  v.  It  is  likely  that  he  circulated  other  works  in  manuscript. 

1  Nicolai  Borbonii  .  .  .  Nugarum  libri  octo,  Lyons,  1538,  p.  146. 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  43 

A  te  longe  alius  fores  poeta. 
Nam  qui  Gallicus  es  bonus  poeta, 
Esses,  Carole,  pessimus  Latinus.1 

A  third  Latin  poet,  Gilbert  Ducher,  seems  to  have  been  more 
closely  acquainted  with  Fontaine  than  Borbonius  and  Vulteius. 
In  his  Epigrammata  he  addressed  a  short  poem  Ad  €arolum  Fon- 
tanum  Parisiensem,  and  in  the  same  volume  Fontaine  inserted  a 
Latin  quatrain  in  honor  of  Ducher.2 

Fontaine  furnishes  information  concerning  other  friendships 
formed  with  eminent  men  before  his  permanent  departure  from 
Paris.  Foremost  among  his  early  friends  must  be  mentioned 
Pierre  Saliat.  A  quatrain  addressed  by  Fontaine  to  "  M.  Saliat, 
qui  a  traduit  Herodote  de  grec  en  frangois,"  adverts  to  the  inti- 
macy between  the  two  authors: 

Dieu  gard  qui  par  vertu  s'allie 
A 3  la  Muse  et  a  la  Fontaine : 
Vingt  ans  y  a  qu'  Apollo  lie 
Telle  alliance  sus  la  Seine.4 

A  passage  in  the  dedicatory  letter  of  Fontaine's  Epistres  d'Ovide 
(1552)  addressed  by  him  to  Antoine  de  Crussol,5  "  seigneur  dudict 
lieu,  seneschal  de  Cahors  en  Querci,  et  Fun  des  cent  gentils- 
hommes  de  la  chambre  du  Roy,"  gives  evidence  of  Fontaine's 
acquaintance  not  only  with  Saliat,  but  with  Crussol  as  well: 

Au  reste,  Monseigneur,  combien  que  vous  ayez  en  vostre  jeune  aage  este 
instruict  et  assez  avance  en  la  langue  latine  par  le  moyen  de  monsieur  Saliat 
(homme  rempli  tant  de  bonnes  moeurs  que  de  doctrine  es  trois  langues, 

1  lo.  Vulleii  Rhemensis  Hendecasyllaborum  libri  quatuor,  Paris,  1538,  fol.  93.    In 
loan,  Vulteii  Rhemi  Inscriptionum  libri  duo,  Paris,  1538,  p.  20,  there  is  a  quatrain 
Ad  Vulteium  Carolus  Fontanus. 

2  Gilberti  Ducherii  Vultonis  Aquapersani  Epigrammaton  libri  duo,  Lyons,  1538, 
pp.  133  and  158. 

3  S'allie  d  is  a  pun  on  Saliat. 

4  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles  (1554) :  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  d  la  ville  de  Paris. 
In  Nicolai  Borbonii  .  .  .  Nugarum  libri  octo,  p.  478,  there  is  a  poem  De  P.  Saliato, 
L.  Querculo,  C.  Fontano  amicis  conjunctis. 

6  Son  of  Charles  de  Crussol  and  Jeanne  de  Genouillac.  The  ruined  chateau  of 
Crussol  is  situated  on  the  Rh6ne,  near  Valence. 


44  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

grecque,  latine,  et  francoise,  et  grant  amy  mien  et  familiar  des  ma  jeunesse, 
auquel  entre  autres  choses,  je  suis  tenu  de  la  congnoissance  et  familiarit6  que 
j'ay  cue  autresfois  avec  vous),  etc. 

Another  early  friend  of  Fontaine  was  Denys  Sauvage  who, 
later,  under  the  name  of  "  le  sieur  du  Pare,"  became  the  historiog- 
rapher of  Henry  II.  Fontaine  inscribed  many  epigrams  to 
Sauvage,  who  repaid  the  compliment  by  penning  an  epithala- 
mium  in  honor  of  Fontaine's  first  marriage.1 

When,  through  his  writings  and  his  literary  relations,  Fontaine 
had  won  a  prominent  position  in  the  world  of  letters,  he  turned 
his  attention  toward  those  persons  who  were  most  able  to  reward 
his  efforts.  In  his  day,  when  the  sales  of  books  were  small,  a  poet 
of  modest  circumstances  could  scarcely  hope  to  earn  a  livelihood 
with  his  pen.  A  patron  alone  could  take  the  place  of  large  and 
numerous  editions.  Imitating  some  of  his  most  successful  con- 
temporaries, Fontaine  first  sought  to  win  the  favor  of  Francis  I. 
He  addressed  many  verses  to  the  king,  and  yet  it  is  almost  certain 
that  his  fair  words  brought  no  substantial  result.  Other  more 
influential  and  more  gifted  writers  gained  the  prizes  and  the  pro- 
tection of  the  "  Father  of  Letters." 

An  epistle  to  Francis  I  is  of  importance  for  Fontaine's  bibliog- 
raphy, since  it  contains  a  reference  to  a  work  of  which  no  other 
trace  remains: 

Si  vostre  esprit  .  .  . 

Vient  a  penser  qui  auroit  peu  induire 

Ma  Muse  basse  a  ce  livre  traduire, 

Plus  tost  que  nul  des  autres  de  1'auteur, 

Dond  le  renom  croist  en  toute  haulteur  .  .  . 

J'ay  done  eleu  ce  livret  cy  pourtant 

Que  de  sante  1'auteur  y  va  traitant, 

Et  qu'il  vault  mieux  estre  sain  que  malade  .  .  . 

Vous  y  verrez  comme  on  doit  s'occuper, 

Pour  toute  oysive  occasion  coupper, 

Ou  en  1'amour  de  victoire  par  guerre, 

Ou  a  chacer,  ou  cultiver  la  terre: 

Qui  sont  trois  pointz  de  noblesse  tenans, 

Qui  sont  trois  pointz  a  vous  appartenans.2 

1  Cf.  p.  54,  below. 

2  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  5 :  £pttre  au  Roy,  d  qui  1'auteur  adressoit  une  sienne  traduction. 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  45 

This  epistle  also  contains  an  allusion  to  the  appointment  of  the 
lecteurs  royaux: 

Qui  ornez  vostre  universite  saincte 
De  gens  lettrez  et  de  science  mainte: 
Qui  long  temps  a,  et  de  propos  certain, 
Avez  conceu  en  vostre  esprit  haultain 
D'edifier  un  trilingue  college, 
Et  Penrichir  de  maint  grand  privilege. 

In  an  epigram  1  Fontaine  refers  to  another  work  that  he  pre- 
sented to  Francis  I: 

Puys  qu'il  a  pleu  a  ton  cueur  tant  humain 
Mon  ceuvre  ouyr,  le  tenir  en  ta  main, 
Et  son  autheur  retenir  en  memoire, 
Faisant  de  luy  mencion  bien  notoire.2 

Encouraged  by  the  king's  complaisance,  Fontaine  offered  him 
still  another  work,  a  prose  translation  of  the  first  book  of  Saint 
Augustine's  De  Praedestinatione  Sanctorum? 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Fontaine  wrote  but  little  prose.  As 
early  as  his  correspondence  with  Jean  Dugue,  he  was  proud  of  his 

prose  style: 

Et  qui  verroit  de  ma  prose,  peut  estre 

Ne  me  prendroit  pour  en  vers  me  cognoistre. 

The  excellence  of  Fontaine's  prose  did  not  escape  the  critical  eye 
of  Guillaume  Colletet  who,  in  his  Vies  des  poetes  franqois,  says: 
"  Fontaine  composa  des  ceuvres  en  prose  que  j'estime  beaucoup 
plus  que  ses  vers  meme,  puisqu'elle  est  forte  et  raisonnable  et,  ce 
me  semble,  plus  polie  que  son  temps  ne  sembloit  le  permettre." 

1  Here,  as  often  in  the  sixteenth  century,  epigram  means  merely  a  short  poem  on 
a  single  thought  or  event. 

8  La  Fontaine  &  amour  (1545):  Au  Roy.  A  qui  Vautheur  avail  fait  presenter  un 
livre.  Francis  I  also  had  the  patience  to  listen  to  Fontaine's  reading  of  a  mediocre 
dizain  (which  is  in  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  100). 

3  This  translation,  which  I  discovered  in  manuscript  in  the  Bibliotheque  Na- 
tionale  (Manuscrits  francais,  13201),  bears  the  following  title:  Le  Premier  livre  de  la 
predestination  des  sainctz,  compost  par  sainct  Augustin.  The  volume  is  not  dated, 
but  the  work  was  probably  translated  about  1540. 


46  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  following  extract  from  the  dedicatory  epistle  of  the  Premier 
livre  de  la  predestination  des  sainctz  confirms  Colletet's  opinion: 

Mais  je  preins  icy  la  predestination  pour  prescience  ou  providence,  con- 
siderant  aussi  que  moy  (quel  que  je  soye)  j'ay  ung  petit  experiments,  comme 
Dieu  m'en  a  faict  la  grace,  la  grande  vertu  et  efficace  de  la  congnoissance  de 
ceste  pre" destination.  C'est  a  scavoir  qu'elle  m'a  console  en  tribulation, 
esperonne*  en  la  course  de  bonne  vie,  asseure  en  doubte,  et  brief,  qu'elle  m'a 
donne"  une  indicible  paix  de  conscience  et  une  confirmation  contre  toute 
adversite1.  A  ces  causes  et  moyens  j'ay  este  mceu  et  incite  de  mectre  la  main 
a  ceste  ceuvre:  c'est  que  j'ay  traduit  au  proufit  et  edification  de  plusieurs 
(que  je  croy)  ce  petit  livre  de  sainct  Augustin  intitule  Premier  livre  de  la 
predestination  des  sainctz.  .  .  .  Plusieurs  vous  offrent  et  de"dient  des  livres 
des  histoires,  plusieurs  des  livres  d'oratoire,  plusieurs  de  la  maniere  de  bien 
gouverner  ung  royaulme,  ce  qui  est  tresbien  et  louablement  faict.  Mais  il 
m'a  semb!6  aussi  bon  (je  ne  dy  pas  meilleur)  de  vous  desdier  cestuy  cy, 
lequel  iacoit  qu'il  soyt  de  matiere  haulte  et  dont  on  meet  bien  peu  en  lumiere, 
toutesfoys  j'ay  este  et  suis  en  ceste  oppignion  que  bien  ne  doibt  estre  cache  a 
vostre  majeste  haulte,  et  ay  repute  que  le  prendriez  non  comme  moy  parlant 
en  escripvant  a  vous,  mais  comme  sainct  Augustin.  Et  si  plusieurs  novices 
en  latin  et  de  petit  jugement  naturel  le  peu  vent  veoir  et  lire  en  latin,  combien 
plus  sera  loysible  a  vostre  esprit  si  parfaict  et  si  agu  de  le  veoir  traicte  en  la 
langue  qui  luy  est  propre  et  naturelle.  II  m'est  advis,  Sire,  et  vrayment  je  ne 
faindray  de  le  dire,  qu'il  n'y  a  livre  au  monde  de  sens  si  profond,  de  matiere 
si  haulte,  de  diction  si  elegante  que  ce  me  soyt  mespris  de  le  vouloir  cacher 
a  tel  personnage  et  a  tel  esprit. 

There  is  no  proof,  as  I  have  said  already,  that  Fontaine  re- 
ceived any  reward  for  his  efforts  to  please  Francis  I.  That  he  was 
more  successful  in  his  relations  with  Francis's  son,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,1  may  be  judged  from  the  following  passage: 

.  .  .  attendu  le  grand  renom  de  vostre  humanite  tres  grande,  et  singu- 
liere  amour  des  letres:  lequel  n'est  sans  le  fait,  comme  moy  indigne  ay 
cogneu  par  experience,  quand  par  plusieurs  fois  de  vostre  grace  et  benignite 
naturelle  m'avez  fait  recueil  a  Paris,  lieu  de  ma  naissance,  ou  vous  ay  pre- 
mierement  pre'sente'  quelque  chant  de  ma  petite  Muse,  qu'avez  si  bien  pris, 
qu'apres  en  avoir  eu  la  lecture  1'envoyastes  a  madame  Marguerite,  vostre 
tresnoble  et  tresvertueuse  sceur,  comme  monsieur  Maynus,2  homme,  certes, 
non  moins  comble  de  science  que  de  bonte"  et  humanite  m'a  recite:  qui  en 

1  Charles  (1522-45),  son  of  Francis  I  and  Claude  de  France.    Marguerite  (1523- 
79),  Charles's  sister,  mentioned  below,  married  the  Duke  of  Savoy  in  1559. 

2  Guillaume  du  Maine,  "  conseiller  et  aum6nier  du  due  d'Orteans  "  (Catalogue 
des  actes  de  Francois  I",  vol.  iv,  p.  216,  no.  11995). 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  47 

fut  luymesme  le  porteur  et  lecteur  par  vostre  commandement:  et,  ce  fait, 
commandastes  de  vostre  liberalite  que  me  fust  delivre  quelque  present.1 

Notwithstanding  the  encouragement  and  the  liberality  of  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  Fontaine  did  not  find  in  Paris  the  patronage  he 
had  anticipated.  Undismayed,  he  determined  to  seek  a  more 
appreciative  protector  elsewhere.  It  was  natural  that  he  should 
remember  that  his  friend  Clement  Marot,  during  his  flight  after 
the  affaire  des  placards,  had  been  welcomed  by  the  sympathetic 
Duchess  of  Ferrara,  Renee  de  France,  one  of  the  most  charming 
women  of  the  time,  of  whom  even  the  gossip  Brantome  speaks  in 
the  following  complimentary  terms: 

Bref,  ceste  princesse  estoit  bien  fille  de  France,  vraie  en  bonte  et  charitS. 
Elle  avoit  aussi  le  coeur  fort  grand  et  haut.  Je  luy  ay  veue  en  Italic,  et  a  la 
court,  garder  aussi  bien  son  rang  qu'il  estoit  possible:  et  encore  qu'elle  apa- 
rust  n'avoir  pas  1'apparance  exterieure  tant  grande,  a  cause  de  la  gasture  de 
son  corps,  si  est  ce  qu'elle  en  avoit  beaucoup  en  sa  majeste,  monstrant  bien 
en  sa  grandeur  et  en  son  visage  royal  et  en  sa  parade  qu'elle  estoit  bien  fille 
de  roy 2  et  de  France.3 

Besides  Fontaine's  desire  to  win  the  protection  of  the  Duchess 
of  Ferrara,  he  was  surely  spurred  on  also  by  a  wish  to  visit  some 
of  the  principal  cities  of  Italy,  which  had  been  "  discovered  "  only 
a  half-century  before.  In  addition,  there  was  the  attraction  of 
the  Lyonese  school  of  poets,  and  Lyons  lay  directly  in  his  path 
to  Italy.  These  inducements,  reenforced  by  a  young  man's  eager- 
ness for  adventure,  soon  led  him  to  quit  Paris.  He  chose  an 
economical  method  of  making  the  journey,  —  he  joined  the  army 
of  a  "  belliqueur,"  4  perhaps,  as  Goujet  conjectures,  as  a  poet,  and 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour  (1545),  dedicatory  epistle. 

2  Ren£e  was  the  daughter  of  Louis  XII. 

3  (Euvres  de  Brantome,  Lalanne  edition,  vol.  viii,  p.  113. 

4  Cf.  p.  53,  note  2,  below.    It  is  impossible  to  identify  the  warrior  with  whom 
Fontaine  went.    Francis  I's  hobby,  the  acquisition  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  caused 
him  to  send  a  number  of  armies  to  Italy.    In  1540,  which  seems  to  be  the  date  of 
Fontaine's  journey  to  Italy,  there  was  no  active  campaign  in  Piedmont.    The 
country  was,  however,  in  a  state  of  turmoil:   the  French,  the  new  masters,  were 
endeavoring  to  quell  the  outbreaks  of  brigands,  mutinous  soldiers,  and  other  dis- 
turbers.   Guillaume  du  Bellay,  who  in  1539  became  the  real  governor  of  Piedmont, 


48  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

not  as  a  soldier.1  Thanks  to  his  proneness  to  talk  about  himself, 
we  are  able  to  follow  him  in  his  travels.  He  mentions  some  of  the 
cities  he  visited  and  a  few  of  the  friends  he  made.  Upon  reaching 
Lyons,  he  penned  the  following  Dieu  gard: 

Dieu  gard  Lyon,  la  clef  de  France, 
Pleine  de  gens  et  de  chevance: 
Dieu  gard  Lyon,  qu'en  marchandise 
Par  dessus  toute  autre  Ton  prise: 
Dieu  gard  Lyon,  dont  m'esmerveille, 
Apres  Paris  la  nompareille: 
Dieu  gard  Lyon  bien  decor6e 
De  mainte  deesse  honoree : 
Dieu  gard  les  seigneurs  et  les  dames, 
Dieu  gard  les  corps  et  plus  les  ames: 
Dieu  gard  le  Rosne  avec  la  Sa6ne: 
Que  fussiez  vous  vin  blanc  de  Beaune, 
Ou  encor  meilleur  ou  plus  doux, 
Croyez  que  j'en  beurois  a  vous.2 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  long  Fontaine  remained  in  Lyons. 
We  may  be  sure  that  he  lost  no  time  in  making  the  acquaintance 
of  some  of  the  literary  men  and  women  of  the  city,  Maurice 
Sceve,  Barthelemy  Aneau,  Louise  Labe,  Pernette  du  Guillet,  and 
others,  with  whom  he  was  to  spend  a  great  part  of  his  life.  It  is 
not  unlikely,  as  Goujet  suggests,  that  at  this  time  Maitre  Charles 

under  the  nominal  authority  of  Marshal  d'Annebaut,  tried  to  establish  order  until 
his  death  hi  1543.  But  for  certain  dates  furnished  by  Fontaine  himself  (see  p.  51, 
note  4,  below),  I  should  be  inclined  to  conjecture  that  he  was  in  Italy  hi  1542.  In 
July,  1542,  war  broke  out  again  in  Piedmont  between  the  French  and  the  Spanish, 
and  (see  p.  52,  below)  Fontaine  gives  the  impression  that  he  had  seen  actual 
fighting  in  Italy.  In  1541  Guillaume  du  Bellay  went  back  to  France,  and  in  May, 
1542,  returned  to  Piedmont.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  punning  —  often  very  bad 
punning  —  was  held  in  high  esteem  in  the  sixteenth  century,  it  would  not  be  too 
absurd  to  guess  that  Du  Bellay  was  the  "  belliqueur  "  whom  Fontaine  accompanied. 
In  the  Ruisseaux,  p.  121,  Fontaine  published  a  poem  entitled  De  la  mart  de  Monsieur 
de  Langey  (G.  du  Bellay).  For  another  mention  of  Du  Bellay,  see  Fontaine's  letter 
to  Jean  de  Morel,  p.  151,  below. 

1  Jules  [Caesar]  fut  a  Mars  adonn6, 
Et  moy  bien  peu,  ou  du  tout  non.     (Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  68.) 

2  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  60:  Dieu  gard  a  la  vitte  de  Lyon,faict  Van  1540. 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  49 

also  first  met  Marguerite  Carme,  the  maid  of  Lyons  who  later 
became  his  wife.  However,  he  could  not  linger  for  friends  or 
sweetheart;  his  actions  were  regulated  by  those  of  the  army  of 
which  he  formed  a  part.  He  crossed  the  Alps,  and  stopped  at 
Turin,  where  he  remained  long  enough  to  translate  a  work,  the 
Translat  de  Duel,  of  which  nothing  further  is  known.1  While  in 
Piedmont,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  "  M.  de  Chemant, 
president  de  Piedmont,"  2  and  of  "  M.  Danebault,  lieutenant  pour 
le  roy  en  Piedmont."3  To  the  former  he  addressed  an  epigram 
upon  arriving  in  Piedmont,  to  the  latter  an  epigram  upon  setting 
out  for  Ferrara  and  Venice. 

Fontaine  made  the  journey  from  Turin  to  Ferrara  on  the  Po, 
visiting  several  of  the  cities  that  lie  along  its  banks.4  He  stopped 
first  at  Pavia,  and  it  must  have  been  with  great  interest  that  he 
beheld  the  city  where,  some  fifteen  years  before,  Francis  I  had 
been  taken  prisoner  by  the  Spaniards,  and  where  Clement  Marot, 
fighting  beside  his  king,  had  received  a  wound  in  the  arm.  While 
in  Pavia,  Fontaine  met  Antoine  Perard,  who  addressed  to  him 
this  quatrain: 

I,  pete  Maurusios,  Numidas,  Libyae  extima  quantum, 

O  Fontane,  voles,  vel  glaciale  f return: 

Non  tamen  a  nostra  tolleris  mente,  sed  idem 

Est  detenturus  certus  utrumque  locus.5 

1  Fontaine  mentions  the  Translat  de  Duel  in  the  dedicatory  epistle  of  his  Epi- 
tome des  trois  premiers  livres  de  Artemidorus  (1546).    See  p.  126,  note  3,  below. 

2  La  Fontaine  d' amour. — Francois  Errault,  seigneur  de  Chemans,  was  appointed 
"  president  du  Parlement  de  Pi6mont "  on  Feb.  16,  1539,  and  still  held  the  position 
on  Nov.  28,  1543  (Catalogue  des  actes  de  Francois  Ier,  vol.  vi,  p.  530,  no.  21650,  and 
vol.  iv,  p.  523,  no.  13457). 

3  La  Fontaine  d' amour.  —  Marshal  d'Annebaut  was  appointed  governor-general 
of  Piedmont  on  September  28,  1539  (Cat.  des  actes  de  Francois  I**,  vol.  vii,  p.  263, 
no.  24504). 

*  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  97:  Apostrophe  au  Pau,  riviere  d' Italic,  sus  laquelle  Vauteur 
alia  de  Turin  d  Venise.  Inasmuch  as  Venice  is  not  on  the  Po,  Fontaine  evidently 
meant  that  he  made  a  part  of  the  journey  from  Turin  to  Venice  on  the  Po. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  321:  Antonius  Perardus  ad  C.  Fontanum  Papia  discedentem.  Antoine 
P6rard  took  part  in  the  Passetemps  des  amis,  an  exchange  of  poems  carried  on  by 
Fontaine  and  his  friends.  Cf.  pp.  210  ff.,  below. 


SO  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Continuing  his  journey  down  the  Po,  Fontaine  stopped  at 
Cremona  and  Mantua,  and  finally  at  Ferrara.  Upon  his  arrival 
at  Ferrara,  he  presented  to  Renee  de  France  a  poem  in  which  he 
made  known  to  her  that  she  alone  was  the  cause  of  his  under- 
taking so  long  a  journey;  nor  did  he  fail  to  tell  her  that  he  hoped 
his  appeal  might  not  be  without  some  remuneration: 

Fille  de  Roy  et  treshaute  duchesse, 
Fleuron  du  lys,  fleur  de  toute  noblesse, 
Fille  de  Roy,  diray  je  plus  grand  cas  ? 
Fille  de  Dieu  et  tresbonne  Dorcas: 
Si  ta  bont6,  par  tout  tant  decoree, 
Si  ta  vertu,  des  cieux  mesme  admirSe, 
A  fait  monter  la  Fontaine  en  maint  mont 
Et  transverser  la  France  et  le  Piedmont, 
En  querant  droit  de  ton  pais  la  rive, 
Ou  a  present  grace  a  Dieu  elle  arrive, 
Pour  saluer  ta  hautesse  tant  pleine, 
Au  son  tant  bas  de  sa  petite  veine: 
Tu  dois  penser  que  son  petit  povoir 
N'est  sans  avoir  pour  guyde  grant  espoir.1 

Despite  these  respectful  lines,  Renee  did  not  recompense 
Fontaine,  and  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  year  1540,  the 
probable  date  of  Fontaine's  arrival  at  Ferrara,  was  one  of  the 
most  critical  in  Renee's  sad  life.  Her  distrustful  husband,  Ercole 
d'Este,  was  then  bending  every  energy  to  prevent  her  from 
espousing  Protestantism,  even  going  so  far  as  to  exile  her  to  the 
chateau  of  Consandolo  and  to  place  her  under  the  surveillance  of 
the  disreputable  Frangois  Richardot.2  She  was  too  much  en- 
grossed with  her  own  cares  to  give  heed  to  Fontaine's  entreaties.3 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  46:  A  Madame  Rente  de  France,  Duchesse  de  Ferrare.  For 
a  similar  greeting  to  Renee  by  Marot,  see  Guiffrey,  vol.  iii,  p.  281.  Fontaine  in- 
scribed several  poems  to  Renfie;  also  several  to  Renee's  daughter,  for  example 
(ibid.,  p.  go):  A  tres  noble  et  tres  florissantc  princesse,  Madame  la  Princesse  de 
Ferrare,  du  temps  de  sa  venue  en  France,  et  de  ses  nopces  avec  Monsieur  d'Aumale, 
a  present  Due  de  Guise. 

*  Cf.  E.  Rodocanachi,  Renee  de  France,  Paris,  1896,  chap.  vii. 

1  Concerning  Renee's  readiness  to  assist  needy  Frenchmen,  cf.  Brantdme, 
Lalanne  edition,  vol.  viii,  p.  no:  "  Jamais  Francois,  passant  par  Ferrare,  ayant 
necessity  et  s'adressant  &  elle,  n'a  party  d'avecq'elle,  qu'elle  ne  luy  donnast  une 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  51 

That  Renee  did  not  assist  him  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  while  at 
Ferrara  his  purse  was  so  light  that  Lyon  Jamet,  Marot's  warm 
friend,  then  secretary  to  Renee,  felt  it  his  duty  to  offer  him  aid.1 
Fontaine  refers  to  Jamet's  act  of  kindness  in  no  less  than  three 
poems: 

Quand  la  bourse  me  presentas, 

Et  vuidant  d'escus  un  grand  tas, 

Tu  me  dis  qu'a  mon  gre  j'en  prinsse, 

Foy  d'homme,  c'estoit  fait  en  prince: 

Mais  quand  alors  je  n'en  prins  point, 

Je  te  pry,  respond  moy  d'un  point, 

Ami,  exemple  de  tout  aage, 

Fus  je  sot,  ou  si  je  fus  sage  ?  2 

Elsewhere  he  praises  his  own  forbearance,  as  well  as  Jamet's 
generosity: 

C'est  peu  de  cas  d'avoir  promis, 

L'on  n'en  trouve  que  trop  d'amis 

De  la  parole  et  du  visage: 

Mais  qui  soyent  a  tel  faict  venus 

Comme  toy, 

Et  qui  soyent  de  prendre  abstenus 

Comme  moy, 

L'on  n'en  trouve  point  en  usage.* 

Fifteen  years  later  Maitre  Charles's  gratitude  was  still  undi- 
minished: 

Dieu  gard  que  jamais  je  n'oublie 
Qui  a  ma  muse  caressee 
Quinze  ans  y  a,  quand  1'Italie 
Des  monts  en  mer  a  traversee.4 

ample  aumosne  et  bon  argent  pour  gaigner  son  pals  et  sa  maison;  et  s'il  estoit 
mallade,  et  qu'il  n'eust  peu  cheminer,  elle  le  faisoit  traiter  tres  soigneusement,  et 
puys  luy  donnoit  argent  pour  se  retirer  en  son  pays." 

1  Jamet  went  to  Ferrara  in  1535,  and  stayed  there  until  Ren6e's  return  to  France 
in  1560. 

2  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  112:   A  Lyon  Jamet,  seigneur  de  Chambrun,  secretaire  de 
Madame  Renee  de  France,  Duchesse  de  Ferrare. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  113. 

4  Les  Nouwlles  et  antiques  meroeilles:  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris  .  .  . 
1554  enjuin.    If  "  quinze  ans  y  a  "  is  exact,  Fontaine  was  in  Italy  in  1539.    It  is, 
however,  probably  only  an  approximation.    That  Fontaine  left  Paris  in  1540  is 


52  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Failing  to  obtain  at  Ferrara  the  reward  he  had  hoped  for,  Fon- 
taine, after  visiting  Venice,  Milan,  and  Vercelli,  returned  to 
Turin,  and  prepared  to  go  back  to  France.  Not  only  was  he 
disappointed  in  the  treatment  he  had  received  in  Italy,  but  he 
was  eager  to  leave  a  land  torn  by  strife.  Upon  departing  from 
Turin,  he  addressed  the  following  verses  to  his  military  friends 
and  to  Piedmont  and  its  capital: 

A  Dieu  Piedmont,  a  Dieu  Thurin, 
A  Dieu  capitaines  de  guerre: 
A  Dieu  fifre,  a  Dieu  tabourin, 
L'yver  crie  qu'on  se  reserre. 
Or  a  Dieu  Jean,  or  a  Dieu  Pierre, 
Je  m'en  voys  me  chaufer  chez  moy, 
Au  cueur  de  Frapce  et  en  la  terre 
Qui  est  sans  guerre  et  sans  esmoy.1 

To  Pierre  Saliat  he  repeats  these  unmartial  sentiments, 
and  adds  an  unpatriotic  touch  which  tends  to  verify  Goujet's 
supposition  that  Fontaine  was  not  the  mainstay  of  the  French 
forces: 

J'ay  laisse"  le  pals  de  guerre, 

Sc.ais  tu  pourquoy,  bon  amy  Pierre  ? 

Point  ne  veux  mourir  pour  le  Roy: 

Je  ne  veux  mourir  que  pour  moy.2 

Upon  his  return  to  Lyons,  Fontaine  regretted  the  money  he 
had  spent  and  the  works  he  had  lost  hi  Italy: 

Voyager  loing  belle  chose  est  ce, 
Quand  on  revient  tel  comme  on  part, 
Mais  un  grand  argent  s'y  depart: 
Puis  j'y  ay  laisse"  ma  jeunesse, 
Et  de  mes  oeuvres  une  part.3 

Still,  he  was  proud  of  his  travels  and  the  experience  gained 
through  them: 

proved  by  a  Dieu  gard  to  the  city  of  Paris,  written  in  1547  (cf.  p.  130,  below),  in 
which  he  says  that  he  has  not  seen  Paris  for  seven  years.  Dieu  gard  d  la  ville  de 
Lyon,  faict  Van  1540  (cf .  p.  48,  above)  was  evidently  written  when  Fontaine  saw 
Lyons  for  the  first  time. 

1  La  Fontaine  d' amour:  Adieu  d  Thurin,  Vautheur  retournant  de  Venise. 

1  Ibid.:  A  Maistre  Pierre  Saliat.         *  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  93:  A  Pierre  Saliat. 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  53 

J'ay  veu  pai's  deca,  dela  les  montz, 
Dequoy  souvent  les  gens  nous  estimons: 
J'ay,  grace  a  Dieu,  avec  quelque  science 
Conjoint  1'usage  et  longue  experience.1 

After  his  travels  in  Italy,  Fontaine  did  not  return  to  Paris  to 
live,  but  immediately  took  up  his  abode  in  Lyons.2  That  he  had 
intended  to  return,  at  least  temporarily,  to  Paris  is  evident  from 
the  following  poem,  written  at  Lyons  to  a  lady  of  Paris: 

Jadis  pour  voir  et  pour  avoir  Helene 
S'en  vint  de  Troye  en  la  Graece  Paris: 
Je  viens  pour  vous  d'ltalie  a  Paris: 
Je  croyrois  bien  que  ne  le  pensez  pas: 
Mais  la  grand  cause  estes  de  ce  grand  pas. 
Soit  a  Thurin,  a  Versel,  ou  Milan, 
Je  vous  ay  eu  en  cueur  le  long  de  1'an,3 
Soit  a  Venise,  a  Mantoue,  ou  Cremone, 
Tousjours  pensois  a  vostre  humble  personne. 
Si  lisez  bien  mon  escrit  de  Lyon, 
Le  sentirez  non  sans  affection.4 

Fontaine  probably  did  not  carry  out  his  intention  to  pay  court 
to  the  Parisian  lady  who  had  occupied  his  thoughts  in  various 
Italian  cities.  He  found  in  Lyons  a  young  woman,  Marguerite 
Carme,  who  was  more  to  his  liking,  and  married  her.  Concerning 
Marguerite,  his  first  wife,  Maitre  Charles  gives  scant  information, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  23 :  Response  par  Charles  Fontaine  [i  E.  HJ. 

2  Fontaine's  sister  Catherine  died  during  his  stay  in  Italy: 

Perdue  1'ay  suyvant  un  belliqueur, 
Loing  de  Paris,  voire  bien  loing  j'estois, 
Entre  les  monts  la  mort  je  ne  doutois: 
Et  toy,  ma  soeur,  qu'en  la  plaine  laissoye, 
Dedans  Paris  trouvas  de  mort  la  voye. 

The  FJegie  sur  le  trespas  de  Catherine  Fontaine  (see  p.  187,  below),  from  which  these 
lines  are  taken,  contains  some  information  about  Catherine.  When  she  died,  she 
was  not  yet  thirty-five  years  of  age;  she  was  married;  and  she  had  suffered  for 
five  or  six  years  from  the  malady  that  caused  her  death.  An  early  huitain  by 
Fontaine  A  sa  soeur,  published  in  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  begins: 

A  toy,  ma  sceur,  ma  seule  sceur,  &  toy, 

Qui  as  esprit  assez  digne  de  moy. 

3  This  verse  shows  that  Fontaine's  stay  in  Italy  was  fairly  long. 

4  La  Fontaine  d'amour:  Elegy  xxii. 


54  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

and  this  silence  on  the  part  of  a  poet  who  sings  profusely  the 
praises  of  his  second  wife  tends  to  indicate  that  the  marriage  was 
unhappy.  This  opinion  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  after 
Marguerite  Carme's  death  her  relatives  involved  Fontaine  in  a 
lawsuit  which  cost  him  heavily,  brought  him  worry  and  vexation, 
and  for  several  years  made  him  a  conspicuous  figure  about  the 
courts  of  Lyons  and  Paris. 

Marguerite  Carme  was  a  native  of  Lyons,  as  is  shown  by  an 
epithalamium  written  by  Denys  Sauvage,  Eclogue  pastoralle  sur 
le  manage  de  maistre  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien,  et  Marguerite 
Carme,  Lyonnoise.1  This  poem,  which  is  not  entirely  free  from 
licentiousness,  furnishes  only  a  few  details  concerning  Marguerite. 
Two  shepherds,  Nyot  and  Guillot,  after  some  preliminary  re- 
marks, say: 

GUILLOT 

Parlons  plus  tost  de  Chariot  le  berger, 

Qui  dans  briefs  jours  se  veult  joindre  et  ranger 

Par  mariage  a  Margot  la  brunette. 

NYOT 

A  Margot,  dea  ?  Ceste  fille  jeunette 
Que  le  puissant  et  noble  fleuve  Rosne 
Ha  engendrSe  en  la  riviere  Sa6ne  ? 

After  some  speculation  as  to  the  enjoyment  the  wedding  night 
will  bring  forth,  Guillot  offers  up  a  prayer  for  the  happiness  of  the 
young  couple: 

Je  prie  a  Pan  qu'aussi  Chariot  la  prise 

Tant  en  son  cueur,  qu'elle  estant  vieille  et  grise, 

Ce  nonobstant  luy  semble  jeune  et  blonde. 

Concerning  Marguerite,  Fontaine  gives  even  less  information 
than  Sauvage.  In  a  mediocre  huitain,  he  invites  six  friends  to  his 
wedding 

avec  la  Marguerite, 
Que  luy  avoit  ce  beau  champ  cy  produite.1 

1  Published  in  Fontaine's  Estreines  d  certains  seigneurs  et  dames  de  Lyon,  Lyons, 
1546,  p.  25. 

*  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  99. 


EARLY  FRIENDS,  ITALIAN  JOURNEY,  MARRIAGE  55 

Prior  to  his  marriage,1  Fontaine  was  relatively  free  from  care. 
His  relations  with  Marot,  his  success  as  a  poet,  and  the  praises  he 
won  from  contemporary  writers  probably  caused  him  to  overlook 
the  treatment  he  received  from  Francis  I  and  others  in  a  position 
to  assist  him.  The  unsuccessful  outcome  of  his  journey  to  Fer- 
rara  was  not  enough  to  discourage  a  young  man  of  twenty-six 
years  who,  in  spite  of  rebuffs,  still  had  unbounded  confidence  in 
himself.  His  marriage  to  Marguerite  Carme  was  the  beginning 
of  his  sorrows.  The  rest  of  his  life  he  spent  in  Lyons.  We  shall 
follow  the  traces  left  by  him  there,  and  also  examine  the  numerous 
volumes  of  prose  and  poetry  that  he  carried  to  the  presses  of 
Jean  de  Tournes,  Thibaud  Payen,  and  other  celebrated  printers, 
in  the  hope  that  these  productions  might  keep  the  wolf  from  the 
door. 

1  Goujet  says  that  Fontaine  and  Marguerite  were  married  in  1540,  which  is 
very  likely  correct. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LYONS 

Royal  visits.  —  Fairs.  —  Italians.  —  Manufacture  of  silk.  —  Printing,  printers,  and 
engravers.  —  Men  of  letters.  —  Latin  poets.  —  Women.  —  Reception  of  Charles 
Fontaine  at  Lyons.  —  His  poems  in  honor  of  Lyons  and  its  citizens.  —  Ode  de 
Vantiquile  et  excellence  de  la  vitte  de  Lyon. 

WHEN  Charles  VIII,  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  his  captains 
and  his  counsellors,  decided  to  undertake  an  expedition  against 
Naples,  his  decision  won  the  hearty  approval  of  the  practical  and 
enterprising  citizens  of  Lyons,1  who  foresaw  that  on  account  of 
its  geographical  situation  Lyons  would  be  inevitably  chosen  as 
the  headquarters  of  the  French  troops,  and  that  the  presence  of 
the  king  and  his  followers  would  cause  in  the  city  an  increase  in 
commercial  activity  which  could  be  brought  about  in  no  other 
way.  Their  expectations  were  fully  realized.  In  March,  1494, 
Charles  and  his  young  queen,  Anne  de  Bretagne,  entered  Lyons 
in  the  midst  of  general  rejoicing  and  sumptuous  festivities.  The 
usually  business-like  Lyonese  forgot  their  counters  to  such  an 
extent,  and  entertained  their  guests  so  well,  that  the  expedition 
against  Naples  was  postponed  until  the  following  August.  Then 
the  army  went  on  its  way,  and  began  the  invasion  that  had  such 
a  beneficial  influence  on  the  Renaissance  in  France.  Charles 
returned  by  way  of  Lyons  in  November,  1495,  and  the  manifes- 
tations in  his  honor  were  even  more  brilliant  than  those  of  the 
preceding  year.  After  a  sojourn  of  several  weeks,  the  king  took 
his  departure,  and  never  visited  Lyons  again. 

Louis  XII  and  Francis  I  continued  the  Italian  policy  of  Charles 
VIII;  Louis  added  the  Duchy  of  Milan  to  the  French  crown; 

1  Excellent  studies  on  the  Lyons  of  the  Renaissance  may  be  found  in  the  follow- 
ing works:  R.  C.  Christie,  £,tienne  Dolet,  chap,  ix;  F.  Buisson,  Sfbastien  Castellion, 
vol.  i,  chap,  ii;  A.  Baur,  Maurice  Sceve,  chap.  i. 


LYONS  57 

Francis  regained  it  at  Marignan  after  it  had  been  lost.  Both 
sovereigns  made  Lyons  the  basis  of  their  operations,  and  a  visit 
from  the  monarch  soon  became  an  ordinary  event.  Balls,  ban- 
quets, tournaments,  and  celebrations  on  the  Sa6ne  and  the 
Rhone  gave  the  somewhat  gloomy  commercial  city  an  air  of 
gayety  hitherto  unknown. 

The  constant  going  and  coming  of  kings,  nobles,  and  soldiers 
on  their  way  to  and  from  Italy  made  Lyons  one  of  the  most 
important  cities  of  Europe.  Its  four  great  fairs  became  the  ren- 
dezvous of  the  trading  world.  Merchants  from  the  Orient, 
Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  Germany,  Denmark,  and  England  brought 
their  wares  and  sold  them  at  excellent  prices.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  imports  and  exports  through 
the  medium  of  these  fairs  alone  reached  the  grand  total  of  one 
hundred  million  livres,1  an  enormous  sum  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
money  values  were  then  much  greater  than  at  present. 

As  Lyons  became  more  powerful  commercially,  and  as  com- 
munication between  Italy  and  southern  France  increased,  many 
Italian  families,  either  political  exiles  or  merely  speculators  in 
quest  of  gain,  crossed  the  Alps  and  settled  in  the  bustling  city. 
From  Florence,  Milan,  Lucca,  Genoa,  and  other  cities  came  the 
Strozzi,  the  Altoviti,  the  Tondi,  the  Albizzi,  the  Tapponi,  the 
Pazzi,  and  the  Frangipani,  who  brought  with  them  the  spirit  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance,  luxurious  habits,  and  a  feeling  for  art 
which  had  been  lacking  in  France.2 

In  1536  the  consulate  of  Lyons  accepted  the  proposition  of  two 
Piedmontese  merchants,  Turquet  and  Naris,  for  the  establish- 

1  A.  Steyert,  Noutielle  histoire  de  Lyon,  Lyons,  1899,  vol.  iii,  p.  103. 

2  Cf .  Tilley,  The  Literature  of  the  French  Renaissance,  vol.  i,  p.  23 :  "  It  [Lyons] 
was  half  Italian  in  character.    Already  in  the  fifteenth  century  Italian  merchants 
had  begun  to  settle  there;  in  1528  Andrea  Navagero  wrote  that  more  than  half  the 
inhabitants  were  foreigners,  and  that  nearly  all  of  these  were  Italians.    In  the  first 
thirty  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  governorship  of  the  city  was  held  by 
members  of  the  Milanese  family  of  Trivulzi,  all  of  whom  warmly  sympathised  with 
every  form  of  intellectual  progress."  —  The  proximity  of  Lyons  to  Italy  and  the 
large  number  of  Italians  in  the  city  explain  the  strong  influence  of  Italian  writers 
on  the  Lyonese  school  of  poets. 


58  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

ment  of  manufactories  especially  devoted  to  fine  silks.1  So  rapidly 
did  this  industry  develop  that  when,  in  1548,  Henry  II  entered  the 
city,  459  weavers  and  440  dyers  took  part  in  the  festivities  in  his 
honor,  and  in  1553  twelve  thousand  inhabitants  of  Lyons  gained 
a  livelihood  from  the  products  of  their  looms.2 

To  the  Germans  was  due  the  introduction  of  printing,  which 
made  Lyons  the  capital  of  the  French  Renaissance  and  one  of  the 
foremost  intellectual  centers  of  the  world.  As  early  as  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century  four  score  of  master  printers  were  working 
in  Lyons,  supplying  the  markets  of  Europe  with  books  on  all 
subjects  and  in  many  languages.  The  addition  of  illustrations  to 
the  volumes  published  drew  from  other  countries  men  whose 
names  rank  high  in  the  annals  of  art  —  Georges  Reverdy  from 
Piedmont,  Maitre  Thomas  from  Italy,  Pierre  Eskreich  from 
Germany,  and  especially  the  celebrated  Bernard  Salomon,  or,  as 
he  was  called,  "  le  petit  Bernard."  3  Lyons,  with  its  eminent 
printers  and  engravers,  soon  outstripped  even  Paris,  although 
Paris  had  the  honor  of  producing  the  first  books  printed  in 
France. 

The  list  of  printers  and  publishers  who  plied  their  trade  in 
Lyons  in  the  sixteenth  century  is  a  long  one:  Jean  de  Tournes, 
Sebastien  Gryphe,  Mace  Bonhomme,  fitienne  Dolet,  Thibaud 
Payen,  Jean  Ausoult,  Guillaume  Roville  or  Rouille,  Benoit 
Rigaud,  Francois  Juste,  Philibert  Rollet,  Claude  Nourry,  and 
Jean  Temporal  may  be  mentioned  among  the  most  celebrated.4 

1  The  manufacture  of  silk  was  not  introduced  into  Lyons  by  Turquet  and  Nans. 
Cf.  Steyert,  Nouvelle  histoire  de  Lyon,  vol.  iii,  p.  91 :  "  H  ne  s'agissait  pas  des  tissus 
de  soie  tegere,  rubans,  etc.,  qui  comptaient,  en  1533,  400  metiers  a  Lyon,  mais  des 
6toffes  de  luxe,  dont  1'Italie  avail  conserve'  le  monopole." 

*  Steyert,  vol.  iii,  p.  92. 

3  Salomon  may  have  been  born  at  Lyons.  —  The  sculptor  and  engraver  Pierre 
Woeirot,  born  at  Bouzey,  near  Reims,  also  spent  many  years  at  Lyons.    Fontaine 
inscribed  an  epigram  to  Woeirot:   A  Pierre  Voeriot,  lorsqu'il  pour  tray  oil  I'auteur 
(Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes,  p.  103). 

4  One  has  only  to  consult  Baudrier's  monumental  Bibliographie  lyonnaise  to  get 
an  idea  of  the  great  number  of  printers,  publishers,  and  booksellers  in  Lyons  at  this 
time. 


LYONS  59 

From  their  offices  were  issued  some  of  the  most  important  works 
of  the  period  —  for  example,  Rabelais's  Pantagruel  and  Gargan- 
tua,  Marot's  Enfer  and  (Euvres,  Marguerite  of  Navarre's  Mar- 
guerites de  la  Marguerite  des  princesses,  Maurice  Sceve's  Delie, 
and  Sanctes  Pagnini's  Hebrew  lexicon.  Not  only  did  the  printers 
of  Lyons  strive  to  supply  their  readers  with  books  by  the  best 
ancient  and  modern  authors,  but  they  sought  to  make  these  books 
as  free  from  errors  as  possible  by  engaging  the  most  capable 
proof-readers  that  could  be  secured;  Rabelais,  Dolet,  Jean 
Lascaris,  and  Hubert  Sussanneau  were  employed  in  the  office  of 
Sebastien  Gryphe  alone.  The  printers  themselves  were  often 
brilliant  scholars;  Gryphe  and  Jean  de  Tournes  are  shining 
examples  of  printers  at  a  time  when  printing  was  regarded  not 
merely  as  a  trade,  but  as  a  liberal  and  a  learned  art. 

It  was  natural  that  a  city  humming  with  the  sound  of  printing 
presses  in  the  hands  of  an  enlightened  class  of  printers  should 
produce  a  multitude  of  men  of  letters.  Unhampered  by  the 
carping,  unjust  interference  of  the  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne, 
and  by  the  meddling  of  the  inquisitors  of  Toulouse,  the  human 
mind  enjoyed  complete  freedom  in  Lyons.  In  the  shadows  of 
Fourviere  were  produced  noteworthy  writings  in  all  branches  of 
science  and  literature  not  only  by  the  Lyonese,  but  by  distin- 
guished men  drawn  from  the  four  corners  of  France.  Art  and 
letters  were  liberally  patronized  by  the  leading  citizens,  such  as 
Jean  du  Peyrat,  the  possessor  of  a  magnificent  library;  the 
Gadagnes,  celebrated  for  their  riches;  Claude  Laurencin,  a  rich 
draper;  Claude  Bellievre,  a  zealous  student  of  history  and 
archaeology;  Symphorien  Champier,  a  physician  and  an  author, 
the  founder  of  the  School  of  Medicine  of  Lyons;  Pierre  Sala,  a 
numismatist;  Jean  de  Guise,  Cardinal  of  Lorraine;  and  the 
Groliers. 

Of  the  literary  men  who  flourished  in  Lyons  at  this  period  the 
most  famous  was  the  learned  poet  and  antiquarian,  Maurice 
Sceve,  whose  Delie,  objet  de  plus  haute  vertu  is  classed  among 
the  most  important  pre-P16iade  productions.  Grouped  around 


60  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

ScSve  were  men  who,  more  or  less  forgotten  to-day,  were  then 
regarded  as  the  ornaments  of  all  France:  Barthelemy  Aneau, 
the  principal  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite,  and  the  author  of  the 
Quintil  Horatian;  fitienne  Dolet,  a  printer  and  an  author,  "  the 
martyr  of  the  Renaissance";  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  a 
theologian,  a  poet,  and  a  reformer;  Antoine  du  Moulin,  a  valet 
de  chambre  of  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  a  poet,  and  the  editor  of 
many  works;  Noel  Alibert,  also  a  valet  de  chambre  of  Marguerite, 
and  a  poet  in  his  idle  hours;  Benoit  Court,  the  commentator  of 
the  Arresta  Amorum  of  Martial  d'Auvergne;  Louis  Meigret,  a 
spelling  reformer;  Guillaume  Duchoul,  an  antiquarian;  Jean 
des  Gouttes,  the  translator  of  Lucian;  and  Sanctes  Pagnini, 
the  great  Hebrew  scholar. 

In  addition  to  these  natives  or  adopted  citizens  of  Lyons,  some 
of  the  chief  men  of  letters  of  France  sojourned  in  the  city  for 
periods  of  varying  lengths  —  for  instance,  Rabelais,  who,  besides 
serving  as  corrector  for  Sebastien  Gryphe,  held  a  position  as  doc- 
tor in  the  Hotel-Dieu;  Clement  Marot,  who  was  received  so 
cordially  by  the  Lyonese  that  out  of  gratitude  he  penned  verses 
which  later  adorned  the  arms  of  the  city, 

Adieu  Lyon,  qui  ne  mord  poinct, 
Sinon  quand  1'ennemi  te  poinct ; 

Bonaventure  des  Periers,  whose  Cymbalum  Mundi  aroused  the 
ire  of  the  Sorbonne;  Sebastien  Castellion,  who  in  early  manhood 
made  many  friends  in  Lyons  by  his  devotion  to  deep  study; 
Guillaume  des  Autelz,  the  author  of  the  Repos  de  plus  grand 
travail;  and  Jacques  Peletier  du  Mans,  a  poet,  a  mathematician, 
a  grammarian,  a  philosopher,  a  physician,  and  a  critic.1 

The  progress  of  humanistic  studies  in  Lyons  between  1530  and 
1540  attracted  a  number  of  men  who  divided  their  time  between 
their  labors  at  the  College  de  la  Trinite  2  and  the  composition  of 

1  To  these  names  Christie  adds  the  following:  Erasmus,  Robert  Estienne, 
Reginald  Pole,  Jacques  Sadolet,  Jean  Calvin,  Theodore  de  Beze,  Antoine  de  Gouvea, 
Janus  Secundus,  Emile  Ferret,  and  Guillaume  Bud6  (R.  C.  Christie,  fctienne  Dolet, 
p.  168). 

1  Concerning  the  College  de  la  Trinity  see  pp.  216,  ff.,  below. 


LYONS  6 1 

Latin  verses:  Gilbert  Ducher,  a  native  of  Aigueperse,  the  village 
in  which  Michel  de  1'Hospital  was  born;  Nicolas  Bourbon,  the 
preceptor  of  Jeanne  d'Albret;  Jean  Voulte,  of  Reims  or  Vandy; 
Florent  Wilson,  a  Scotchman,  to  whom  Barthelemy  Aneau 
dedicated  his  French  translation  of  Alciati's  Emblemata;  and 
Salmon  Macrin,  the  inconsolable  mourner  of  his  dead  Gelonis.1 
Besides  the  talented  men  who  brought  fame  to  Lyons,  the  city 
also  boasted  a  remarkable  group  of  women,  who  formed  what  a 
modern  critic  has  aptly  called  "  the  passionate  school."  2  Fore- 
most among  these  women  was  Louise  Labe,  "  la  belle  Cordiere,"  3 
a  sort  of  latter-day  Sappho,  the  author  of  a  little  masterpiece, 
Le  Debat  de  Folie  et  d' Amour,  the  prose  of  which  excited  the 
admiration  of  Voltaire  and  Sainte-Beuve;  the  author  also  of 
twenty-four  sonnets,  which  are  filled  with  the  outpourings  of  a 
passionate  soul.  Quite  as  famous  as  Louise  Labe  was  Pernette  du 
Guillet,  whom  Guillaume  Paradin  characterized  as  "  toute  spiri- 
tuelle,  gentille,  et  tres  chaste,  laquelle  a  vescu  en  grand  renom  de 
tout  mesle  sc.  avoir,  et  s'est  illustree  par  doctes  et  eminentes 
poesies,  pleines  d'excellence  de  toutes  graces."  Clustered 
around  Louise  Labe  and  Pernette  du  Guillet  was  a  bevy  of  women 
whose  names  have  a  place  in  the  literary  history  of  France  either 
on  account  of  their  verses  or  their  relations  with  eminent  writers: 
Clemence  de  Bourges,  to  whom  Louise  Labe  dedicated  her 
volume  of  poems,  and  whom  Claude  de  Rubys  called  "  cette  perle 
vraiment  orientale  entre  les  demoiselles  de  Lyon  ";  Jacqueline  de 
Stuard,  to  whom  Bonaventure  des  Periers  wrote  poems  of  love; 
Jeanne  Gaillarde,  sung  by  Clement  Marot;  Jeanne  Creste, 
whose  verses  and  beauty  were  praised  by  Voulte  and  Ducher,  and 
who  on  a  wager  kissed  the  grimy  cheek  of  a  chimney  sweep; 
Claudine  and  Sibylle  Sceve,  sisters  or  cousins  of  Maurice  Sceve; 
and  others  who  are  now  all  but  forgotten:  Claudine  Peronne, 

1  Concerning  humanists  at  Lyons,  see  A.  Baur,  Maurice  Sceve,  chap,  iv:  Sceve 
et  les  humanistes  lyonnais. 

2  Concerning  the  women  of  Lyons,  see  ibid.,  chap,  vi:  Pernette  du  Guillet  et  les 
femmes  de  la  Renaissance  lyonnaise. 

3  The  wife  of  Ennemond  Perrin,  a  ropemaker. 


62  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Julia  Blanche,  Jeanne  Faye,  Sibylle  Cadiere,  Catherine  de  Vau- 
xelles,  Marguerite  de  Bourg,  and  Sibylle  Bullioud. 

In  an  excellent  article  on  Charles  Fontaine,1  Joseph  Desormaux 
gives  the  following  account  of  the  Lyons  of  the  Renaissance,  its 
savants  and  its  printers,  its  poets  and  its  fair  women: 

Contemporain  de  la  belle  Cordiere,  il  [Fontaine]  connut  cette  nombreuse 
pleiade  de  poetes  lyonnais  qui  au  XVIe  siecle  semblent  d6ja  dans  leurs 
ceuvres  annoncer  la  r£forme  litteraire  et  devancent  sur  plusieurs  points  les 
innovations  de  Ronsard  et  de  son  6cole.  Lyon  etait  alors  dans  une  periode 
de  grandeur  et  d'eclat  qu'il  n'a  peut-etre  jamais  revue:  la  vie  litteiaire 
n'est  pas  encore  centralist  a  Paris,  les  ecrivams  ont  plus  d'originalit£,  les 
poetes  prennent  plus  librement  leur  essor,  et  de  toutes  les  oeuvres  lyonnaises 
du  XVIe  siecle  s'exhale  comme  une  odeur  de  terroir  qui  attire  et  charme  a  la 
fois  arch6ologues  et  poetes,  erudits  et  litterateurs.  Les  uns  et  les  autres  sont 
bien  souvent  tentes  de  r6peter  avec  le  poete  qu'a  cette  epoque 

II  n'y  cut  lieu  en  France  6gal 

Au  grand  Lyon  que  1'on  renomme. 

C'est  que  Lyon  avait  bien  le  droit  d'etre  fier  alors,  fier  de  ses  imprimeurs 
si  renomm£s,  de  ses  savants  et  de  ses  poetes,  fier  aussi  de  ses  nobles  et  illus- 
tres  dames,  qui  savaient  retenir  aupres  d'elles,  par  le  charme  de  leur  beaut6 
comme  par  1'agrement  de  leur  conversation,  1'elite  de  leurs  concitoyens.  A 
Lyon,  des  cette  epoque,  la  femme  regne  dans  les  salons,  car  c'etait  un  verita- 
ble salon,  dans  le  sens  ou  Ton  entendit  plus  tard  ce  mot,  que  la  maison  de 
Louise  Lab6.  Aupres  d'elle  le  talent  et  la  beaute  sont  deja  des  titres  de 
noblesse.  Si  elle  aime  ceux  qui  savent  donner  de  fiers  coups  d'epee,  elle  aime 
aussi  ceux  qui  connaissent  "  la  gaye  science,"  et  plus  d'un  Lyonnais  d'alors 
aurait  pu  revendiquer  pour  lui  cette  devise  de  Jean  Citoys,  un  des  libraires 
de  Charles  Fontaine:  Civis  in  utrumque  paratus.  Dans  les  jardins  si  vant6s 
de  la  rue  Notre-Dame  de  Confort,2  nous  aurions  pu  voir  un  jour  Clemence  de 
Bourges,  cette  jeune  et  sympathique  amie  de  la  belle  Cordiere,  lisant  au 
milieu  d'un  cercle  brillant  de  Lyonnais  et  de  Lyonnaises  les  vers  de  Maurice 
Sceve  ou  d'Olivier  de  Magny;  et,  pres  d'elle,  la  belle  Loyse  songeant  a  son 
gentil  cavah'er  absent,  se  laissait  bercer  doucement  par  des  rgves  d'amour,  et 
murmurait  tout  bas  quelques  vers  de  ses  poetiques  sonnets.3 

Charles  Fontaine  was  warmly  received  by  this  distinguished 
company  when  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Lyons  after  his  return 

1  Un  poete  parisien  d  Lyon  au  XVI"  siecle,  Charles  Fontaine,  et  son  ode  en  I'hon- 
neur  de  Lyon,  in  the  Revue  du  siecle,  vol.  iii  (1889),  P-  45- 

1  The  garden  of  Louise  Lab€. 

1  As  to  the  moral  character  of  Louise  Lab€,  cf.  E.  Picot,  Catalogue  Rothschild, 
vol.  i,  p.  451. 


LYONS  63 

from  Italy.  The  Latin  poets,  Bourbon,  Voulte,  and  Ducher, 
had,  as  has  been  shown,  addressed  friendly  verses  to  him  even 
before  his  departure  from  Paris.  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  in 
a  eulogy  of  C16ment  Marot,  Mellin  de  Saint- Gelais,  Maurice 
Sceve,  Victor  Brodeau,  Jean  Bouchet,  Hugues  Salel,  and  other 
poets,  mentions  Maitre  Charles  as  follows : 

Et  la  aupres  Heroet  le  subtil, 
Avecques  luy  Fontaines  le  gentil, 
Deux  en  leurs  sons  une  personne  unie, 
Chantants  aupres  de  1'haulte  Polymnie.1 

fitienne  Dolet  likewise  had  a  word  of  praise  for  Fontaine,2  and 
Guillaume  des  Autelz  honored  him  with  many  poems.  The  most 
interesting  reference  to  Fontaine  by  a  member  or  a  friend  of  the 
Lyonese  school  occurs,  however,  in  a  poem  the  author  of  which 
has  not  yet  been  fully  determined.3  This  poem,  Des  louenges  de 
Dame  Louize  Lobe,  Lionnoize,  which  was  published  in  the  Euvres 
de  Louize  Lobe  (1555),  contains  the  following  reference  to  the 
"  tenth  Muse's  "  garden  in  the  rue  Notre-Dame  de  Confort: 

Un  peu  plus  haut  que  la  plaine, 
Ou  le  Rone  impetueus 
Embrasse  la  Sone  humeine 
De  ses  grans  bras  tortueus, 
De  la  mignonne  pucelle 
Le  plaisant  jardin  estoit, 
D'une  grace  et  fafon  telle 
Que  tout  autre  il  surmontoit. 

Into  this  delightful  garden  poets  will  come  and  sing  of  the  charms 
of  the  ardent  Louise: 

1  La  Poesie  franQoyse  de  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  Lyons,  1540,  p.  203.    At  the 
end  of  this  volume,  Sainte-Marthe  excuses  himself  for  not  being  "  tant  parfaict  que 
ceulx  qui  y  sont  consomme's,  comme  Marot,  S.  Gelays,  Seve,  La  Maison  Neufve, 
Chappuy,  Fontaines  et  aultres  Poetes  divins  et  tres  6rudits." 

2  In  his  Avant  Naissance  de  Claude  Dolet  (1539),  Dolet  lauds  Maurice  Sceve, 
the  Seigneur  de  Saint-Ambroise  (Jacques  Colin) ,  Antoine  H6roet,  Jean  and  Victor 
Brodeau,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  Hugues  Salel,  C16ment  Marot,  and  "  Charles 
Fontaine,  jeune  homme  de  grande  esp6rance." 

8  Blanchemain  ascribes  the  poem  to  Guillaume  Aubert,  of  Poitiers  (Po'etes  et 
amoureuses  du  XVI'  siecle,  Paris,  1877,  p.  201). 


64  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Et  lors  meints  nobles  poetes, 
Plains  de  celestes  esprits, 
Diront  tes  graces  parfaites 
En  leurs  tres  doctes  escriz: 
Marot,  Moulin,  la  Fonteine, 
Avec  la  Muse  hauteine 
De  ce  Sceve  audacieus, 
Dont  la  tonnante  parole, 
Qui  dens  les  astres  carole, 
Semble  un  contrefoudre  es  cieus. 

It  is  likely  that  Fontaine  paid  homage  to  Louise  Labe,  as  the 
poet  said.  M.  Alfred  Cartier  conjectures  that  he  may  have 
been  the  author  of  some  of  the  eulogistic  verses  published  anony- 
mously in  the  Euvres  de  Louize  Lobe.1 

If  for  some  reason  Maitre  Charles  failed  to  sound  the  praises  of 
"  la  belle  Cordiere,"  he  more  than  made  amends  by  the  verses 
that  he  addressed  to  other  citizens  of  Lyons.  The  high  and  the 
low,  the  obscure  and  the  famous,  poets,  scholars,  physicians, 
lawyers,  municipal  officers,  prelates,  jewelers,  postmen,  printers, 
tailors,  all  received  their  estreines,  their  dizains,  or  their  epigrams. 
To  show  the  nature  of  some  of  these  poems  I  shall  quote  three 
inscribed  by  Fontaine  to  his  intimate  friends  Maurice  Sceve  and 
Barthelemy  Aneau. 

A  Monsieur  Maurice  Sceve. 

Tes  vers  sont  beaux  et  bien  luysants, 

Graves,  et  pleins  de  majeste: 

Mais  pour  leur  haulteur  moins  plaisants: 

Car  certes  la  difficulte 

Le  grand  plaisir  en  a  oste. 

Brief,  ilz  ne  quierent  un  lecteur, 

Mais  la  commune  autorite 

Dit  qu'ilz  requierent  un  docteur.2 

1  Les  Pottes  de  Louise  Lobe,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1894,  p.  433. 
Besides  Marot,  Du  Moulin,  Fontaine,  and  Sceve,  the  following  poets  are  numbered 
among  "the  poets  of  Louise  Lab6":  Claude  de  Taillemont,  Antoine  Fum6e, 
Tyard,  Magny,  Baif,  and  Peletier. 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour.  Modern  criticism  has  added  nothing  to  Fontaine's 
judgment  of  Sceve. 


LYONS  65 

A  Bartolemi  Aneau. 

Ta  science  pleine  et  entiere, 
Que  Ton  peult  bien  assez  congnoistre, 
Te  fera  encor  mieux  paroistre 
Mettant  tes  ceuvres  en  lumiere.1 

A  ses  deux  amys  Monsieur  Maurice  Sceve 
et  Maistre  Bartolomy  Aneau. 

Si  vostre  esprit  estoit  en  moy, 
Je  ne  faindrois  de  vous  escrire: 
Car  j'entends  bien,  et  si  le  voy, 
Qu'en  luy  pouvez  trop  mieux  eslire 
Ce  que  les  scavants  voudroient  lire. 
Mais  je  vous  escry  seulement 
Pour  donner  vostre  jugement 
Sur  mes  passetemps  de  jeunesse. 
Va  doncq,  livret,  douteusement 
Recevoir  d'eulx  sentence  expresse.2 

Besides  the  numerous  pieces  addressed  to  his  fellow  citizens, 
Fontaine  wrote  in  honor  of  the  city  of  Lyons  several  poems  which 
are  of  considerable  worth  as  historical  documents. 

The  most  important  of  these  poems  is  the  Ode  de  I'antiquite  et 
excellence  de  la  mile  de  Lyon.3  It  is  composed  of  eighty  octo- 
syllabic quatrains,  and  though  of  no  literary  merit,  is  especially 
interesting  as  a  record  of  Lyons  during  one  of  its  most  flourishing 
periods.  It  may  be  divided  into  two  parts:  the  first  score  of 
quatrains  are  devoted  to  a  recapitulation  of  the  early  history  of 
Lyons,  the  remainder  to  a  description  of  Lyons  as  Fontaine  saw 
it.  The  latter  portion  is  the  more  valuable,  since  Fontaine  was 
better  (qualified  to  describe  the  things  before  his  eyes  than  to  clear 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  205.  Concerning  Aneau,  a  very  learned  man,  see  pp.  217,  ff., 
below. 

2  The  book  in  question  was  the  Fontaine  d' amour.  —  For  a  list  of  the  people  of 
Lyons  to  whom  Fontaine  addressed  poems,  see  Bibliography,  A,  nos.  5,  6,  12,  15, 
and  16. 

3  Published  by  Jean  Citoys,  Lyons,  1557.    Republished  in  1889  by  the  Societe 
des  bibliophiles  lyonnais.    See  the  article  by  D£sormaux,  cited  on  p.  62,  above;  see 
also  Magasin  encydopedique,  vol.  vi  (1812),  pp.  351-366,  Lettre  a  M.  B.,  sur  un 
poete  du  seizieme  siecle  qui  a  habile  Lyon  et  dont  plusieurs  ouvrages  ont  rapport  a  cette 
ville. 


66  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

up  hazy  points  relating  to  the  founding  of  Lugdunum,  its  rulers, 
and  its  vicissitudes. 

In  his  account  of  the  history  of  Lyons,  Fontaine  mentions  the 
legendary  founding  of  Lugdunum  by  "  Lugdus,  de  Gaule  roy 
trezi&ne,"  1  the  building  of  a  new  city  by  Lucius  Munatius 
Plancus,2  the  burning  of  the  entire  city  in  a  single  night  (A.D.  65), 
and  its  subsequent  rebuilding.3  Concerning  the  antiquity  of 
Lyons,  he  says: 

Lyon  fut  fait  devant  Paris, 
Et  Paris  fut  fait  devant  Romme: 
Quant  au  temps  donq  il  ha  le  pris 
Sus  ces  grans  villes  qu'on  renomme. 

After  brief  references  to  Hannibal's  visit  to  Lyons,  to  the  coming 
of  the  Druids,  to  the  sacking  of  the  city  by  Septimius  Severus 
(A.D.  197),  and  to  details  of  lesser  interest,  Fontaine  passes  to 
modern  times: 

Lyon  donq,  de  Lugdus  nomme, 
Fut  en  estat  scientifique 
Anciennement  renomme, 
Maintenant  il  Test  en  trafique. 

Now  follows  a  celebration  of  many  of  the  famous  places, 
customs,  and  institutions  of  Lyons,  including  the  public  address 
delivered  by  some  dignitary  at  the  fete  of  Saint  Thomas;  an 
allegorical  account  of  the  love  of  the  Sa6ne  and  the  Rh6ne;  the 
surrounding  mountains,  rich  in  fruits,  lime,  metals,  and  stone;  the 

1  Later  in  the  Ode,  Fontaine  mentions  another  popular  belief  regarding  the 
founding  of  Lyons  —  namely,  that  it  was  founded  by  Athenian  philosophers.  He 
reminds  the  reader  that 

Ainay,  quasi  comrac  Athenay, 
D'Athdniens  prend  origine. 

(Saint-Martin  d' Ainay  is  a  church  of  Lyons).  He  adds,  however,  that  this  ety- 
mologizing is  not  original  with  him,  but  has  been  handed  down  by  his  predecessors. 

*  Plancus,  one  of  Caesar's  lieutenants,  entered  Gaul  in  43  B.C.  He  brought  a 
Roman  colony  into  the  territory  of  the  Segusiavi,  and  on  the  plateau  of  Fourviere 
marked  out  the  limits  of  a  new  city.  On  account  of  its  situation  at  the  junction  of 
the  Sa6ne  and  the  Rhone,  this  city,  Lugdunum,  soon  became  an  important  com- 
mercial center. 

1  Due  partly  to  the  generosity  of  Nero. 


LYONS  67 

consulate;  Fourviere,  "la  sainte  montagne";  Roman  inscriptions 
"  en  erain  et  marbre  ";  the  churches,  and  the  Cathedral  of  Saint- 
Jean.  Fontaine  takes  especial  pains  to  depict  the  commercial 
and  industrial  aspect  of  the  city.  The  Rhone  and  the  Saone, 
which  made  the  prosperity  of  Lyons  possible,  are  mentioned : 

Ces  deus  rivieres  ont  bon  port, 
La  marchandise  necessaire 
Y  arrivant  par  grant  aport, 
Leur  charge  le  dos  ordinaire. 

The  two  fairs  established  in  1419,  and  increased  to  four  in  1462, 
attract  traders  from  distant  lands: 

Les  foires  franches  quatre  fois, 
Quatre  fois  1'an  y  sont  hantees 
D'Alemans,  Toscans,  Portugois, 
Et  des  plus  loingtains  frequentees. 

The  greatest  industry  of  Lyons,  the  manufacture  of  silks,  is 
treated  somewhat  briefly: 


Lyon  fait  ouvrages  divers, 
Ouvrages  premier  italiques 
Prenans  origine  des  vers, 
Maintenant  ouvrages  galliques. 


Printing,  in  which  Fontaine  engaged,  is  honored  with  four 
quatrains: 

En  mille  maisons  au  dedans, 

Un  grand  million  de  dents  noires, 

Un  million  de  noires  dents 

Travaille  en  foires  et  hors  foires, 

Sur  estampe  blanche  mordans 
D'une  merveilleuse  morsure, 
Qui  sans  entrer  avant  dedans 
Dure  sans  fin  et  sans  mesure: 

Et  se  fait  connoitre  par  tout 
Ou  le  soleil  se  leve  et  couche, 
Avec  honneur  sans  fin  ne  bout, 
Tant  bien  sa  morsure  elle  touche. 

La  les  grans  villes  on  y  voit 

Au  vif  pour  un  grand  temps  empraintes: 

La  y  revit  (pour  mort  qu'il  soit) 

Le  poete  et  les  Muses  saintes. 


68  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  commercial  activity  of  Lyons  is  further  emphasized  by  a 
mention  of  the  crowd  of  ships  ready  to  sail  in  all  directions,  of  the 
people  hurrying  in  throngs  across  the  bridge,  of  the  frenzied 
clamor  of  the  money-changers.  Maitre  Charles  places  Lyons  on 
a  level  with  the  chief  mercantile  centers  of  Europe,  such  as  Ant- 
werp and  Venice,  and  thinks  that  its  fame  reaches  from  the 
Ganges  to  the  Thames. 

An  interesting  point  in  the  Ode  is  Fontaine's  judgment  of  the 
Lyonese,  a  people  who  from  remote  times  had  so  devoted  them- 
selves to  industry  and  commerce  that  it  was  strange  that  their 
city  should  have  become  the  rival  of  Paris  in  intellectual  matters.1 
Fontaine  speaks  of  the  energy  of  his  fellow  citizens  in  business, 
and  adds  that  they  are  not  wholly  free  from  avarice: 

Au  reste  c'est  bien  vine  gent 
Laborieuse  et  fort  active: 
Et  qui  ne  jette  pas  Targent, 
Ains  experte  a  la  lucrative. 

Le  peuple  n'y  est  gueres  sot: 
S'il  tient  un  peu  de  Pavarice, 
Je  m'en  rapporte,  et  n'en  dy  mot, 
Ains  leur  voudrois  faire  service. 

The  Ode  would  have  been  incomplete  without  a  compliment  to 
the  women  of  Lyons  who,  by  their  wit,  grace,  and  beauty,  did  so 
much  to  bring  renown  to  the  city: 

Les  dames  y  vont  bravement, 
Et  bien  en  ordre  et  bien  coifees, 
Si  qu'on  les  prendroit  proprement 
Pour  de  belles  nymphes  ou  fees. 

*"  Lyon,  dans  notre  histoire  Iitt6raire,  a  eu  des  destinies  particulieres:  1'Alle- 
magne,  Pltalie,  la  France  y  melent  leurs  g6nies;  I'activitfi  pratique,  1'industrie,  le 
commerce,  les  interets  et  les  richesses  qu'ils  crdent  n'y  6touffent  pas  les  ardeurs 
mystiques,  les  exaltations  apres  ou  tendres,  les  vibrations  profondes  ou  sonores  de 
la  sensibilit6  tumultueuse  ..."  (Gustave  Lanson,  Hist,  de  la  litt.  fran$aise,  p.  271). 
M.  Vianey  (Le  Petrarquisme  en  France  au  XVI'  siecle,  p.  58)  speaks  of  Lyons  as 
"  une  ville  de  province  qui  a  toujours  pass6  pour  etre  en  France  un  des  foyers  de  la 
preciositeV' 


LYONS  69 

After  a  quatrain  on  "  les  passetems  et  les  deduits  "  in  the  city 
and  on  the  river  —  the  chief  of  which  is  mummery,  —  Fontaine 
closes  his  poem  with  the  wish  that  Lyons  may  always  continue  its 
"  train  honorifique." 

Although  the  Ode  de  Vantiquite  et  excellence  de  la  mile  de  Lyon  is 
the  longest  and  the  best  known  of  the  poems  that  Fontaine  com- 
posed in  honor  of  Lyons,  and  the  one  that  has  received  most 
attention  from  modern  critics,  there  are  to  be  found  in  his  works 
numerous  Dieu  gard,  epigrams,  and  other  minor  pieces  which 
contain  valuable  information  relating  to  Lyons.1  And  besides 
these  short  pieces  he  wrote  a  poem  of  broader  interest,  Salutation 
au  roy  Charles  IX,  sus  son  entree  en  sa  noble  et  antique  mile  de 
Lyon  (1564)  which,  on  account  of  its  chronological  significance, 
will  be  treated  in  a  later  chapter. 

1  For  example:  Resjouyssance  au  commun  peuple  pour  ceste  annee  mil  cinq  cents 
xlv  (La  Fontaine  d' amour),  cited  on  p.  171,  below;  Des  Porter  esses  de  Lyon  (Ode  de 
Vantiquite  . . .  de  Lyon);  the  Dieu  gard  and  the  Adieu  from  the  Ruisseaux  cited  on 
p.  48,  above,  and  p.  130,  below. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  "QUERELLE  DES  AMIES."  — THE  PLATONISM 
OF  CHARLES  FONTAINE 

I.  La  Victoire  el  triumphe  d' Argent,  by  Almaque  Papillon.  —  Fontaine's  Res- 
ponse to  Papillon's  poem.  —  II.  The  Platonism  of  the  French  Renaissance.  — 
L'Amie  de  Court,  by  Bertrand  de  La  Borderie.  —  La  Contr'amye  de  Court  and  the 
£pttre,  phttosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour,  by  Charles  Fontaine.  —  La  Parfaicte 
Amye,  by  Antoine  Hfiroet.  —  Experience  de  M.  Paul  Angler.  —  Le  Nouvel  Amour, 
by  Almaque  Papillon.  —  Le  Tuteur  d' Amour,  by  Gilles  d'Aurigny. 


IN  1537  there  appeared  in  the  bookstall  of  Francois  Juste,  of 
Lyons,  a  poem  by  Almaque  Papillon  entitled  La  Victoire  et 
triumphe  d1  Argent  contre  Cupido,  dieu  d' amours,  n'aguieres  vaincu 
dedans  Paris,1  to  which  Charles  Fontaine  promptly  composed  a 
reply,  Response  faicte  a  Vencontre  d'un  petit  lime  intitule  le  Tri- 
umphe et  la  victoire  d? Argent  contre  Cupido  n'aguieres  vaincu 
dedans  Paris.  Papillon's  poem  belongs  to  that  vast  category  of 
writings  which,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  France,  were  devoted  to  the 
vilification  of  women.2  Its  author  takes  his  place  beside  the 
authors  of  the  fabliaux,  Jean  de  Meung,  Matheolus,  Jean  Nevi- 
zan,  Andr6  Tiraqueau,  and  the  innumerable  anonymous  writers 

1  Although  the  Victoire  et  triumphe  d' Argent  was  published  anonymously,  it  has 
been  fairly  well  established  that  it  was  written  by  Almaque  Papillon,  valet  de 
chambre  of  Francis  I,  and  a  close  friend  of  Cle'ment  Marot.  Concerning  Papillon, 
see  Mor6ri,  Dictionnaire;  Goujet,  Bibl.  franc..,  vol.  xi,  p.  154;  and  especially  the 
Guiffrey  edition  of  Cle'ment  Marot's  works,  vol.  iii,  p.  567,  note  4. 

1  For  a  consideration  of  this  literature,  see  A.  Lefranc,  Le  Tiers  livre  du  "  Panta- 
gruel "  et  la  querette  des  femtnes,  in  the  Revue  des  etudes  rabelaisiennes,  1904,  pp.  i  and 
78;  same  article  in  Lefranc,  Grands  ecrivains  franqais  de  la  Renaissance,  Paris,  1914, 
pp.  251  ff.  M.  Lefranc  does  not  mention  Papillon's  Victoire  et  triumphe  d' Argent. 

70 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  71 

who  held  that  woman  is  only  a  cunning,  false,  and  heartless 
creature,  or,  as  Vigny  expresses  it, 

Car  la  femme  est  un  £tre  impur  de  corps  et  d'ame.1 

Papillon's  poem,  however,  has  a  saving  grace;  it  is  free  from  the 
filth  and  obscenity  which  mar  the  greater  part  of  the  antifemi- 
nist  literature  of  the  time.  Papillon  sought  to  satirize  only  one 
displeasing  trait  in  the  women  of  Paris  —  their  inordinate 
cupidity,  and  their  consequent  disloyalty  to  the  god  of  love.2 
The  Victoire  et  triumphe  dj Argent  begins  as  follows: 

Au  moys  de  may  Amour  print  ses  sagettes, 

Pour  venir  veoir  ses  subjectz  et  subjectes 

Dedans  Paris  et  toute  la  province, 

Ainsi  que  doibt  et  veult  faire  un  bon  prince. 

Luy  arrive  en  sa  cholere  monte, 

Car  plus  de  luy  dames  ne  tenoient  compte: 

Dont  descocha  son  arc,  dressant  ses  aesles, 

Centre  plusieurs  dames  et  damoyselles. 

Finding  his  arrows  and  flaming  torches  powerless  against  the 
hard  hearts  of  the  Parisian  women,  Cupid  seeks  Venus, 

Qui  luy  respond  que  sus  Parisiennes 
Avoyt  perdu  ses  vertus  anciennes: 
Car  pour  leur  dieu  d'amours  et  pour  regent 
Avoient  recu  un  que  Ton  nomme  Argent, 
Qui  a  muny  leurs  cueurs  de  fortes  armes, 
Pour  abolir  tous  amoureux  alarmes. 

Cupid  summons  all  his  courage,  and  sallies  forth  to  attack  his 
puissant  adversary,  but  soon  learns  that  he  is  too  feeble  to  cope 
with  him.  Out  of  respect  for  Venus,  Argent  merely  disarms  him, 
and  then  delivers  to  him  the  following  harangue : 

"  How  dare  you  make  so  bold  as  to  challenge  me!  Do  you  not 
see  that  my  power  is  unlimited  ? 

1  La  Colere  de  Samson. 

2  Papillon's  Nouvel  Amour  is  a  poem  of  a  wholly  different  nature.    Cf.  p.  118, 
note  3,  below. 


72  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Sceuz  tu  jamais  joindre  deux  cueurs  ensemble 
Que  je  ne  fusse  en  cest  accord  compris, 
Et  pour  moyen  le  plus  apparent  pris  ?  .  .  . 
Mes  chenes  d'or,  rubbiz,  et  diamans 
Ont  plus  valu  (pour  jouir)  aux  amantz 
Que  tes  fins  tours,  tes  fleches,  et  tes  arcs  .  .  . 
Je  n'entends  pas  du  temps  que  pour  fleurettes 
Humbles  pasteurs  jouissoient  d'amourettes. 

"You  were  once  cunning  enough  to  force  Jupiter  and  other 
deities  to  descend  from  the  heavens  in  pursuit  of  mortal  loves; 
your  sway  over  the  creatures  of  the  earth  has  been  hitherto  un- 
bounded. But  now  lovesick  maidens  no  longer  dream  night  and 
day  of  their  lovers.  I,  Argent,  the  almighty,  the  invincible,  have 
so  turned  their  giddy  heads  that  they  are  willing  to  accept  a  rich 
dolt  in  preference  to  a  needy  sage. 

"  The  women  of  Paris  have  shown  their  wisdom  by  choosing 
to  obey  my  easy  laws.  As  their  lord  and  master,  the  god  at  whose 
shrine  they  worship,  I  issue  to  them  these  orders:  Let  them  be 
ever  joyous  and  gay,  and  conspicuous  at  all  banquets  and  merry 
assemblies;  let  them  shun  the  tortures  of  love,  and  sleep  through- 
out the  night  without  a  thought  of  their  sighing  lovers;  let  them 
not  forget  to  employ  any  artificial  means  that  will  attract  rich 
wooers: 

A  leur  coucher  prendront  un  laict  d'amendes, 

Qui  les  tiendra  fresches  et  bien  disposes 

Dedans  leur  lict  entre  courtines  closes  .  .  . 

Consequemment  que  soient  bien  parfume'es, 

Car  pour  cela  en  seront  estimees  .  .  . 

Pour  apparoir  gentes  et  sadinettes 

Leurs  corps  seront  estrainctz  de  cordelettes. 

Dessus  leurs  yeulx  yront  cheveux  au  vent, 

Car  cella  dit:  C'est  icy  qu'on  les  vend. 

Les  advertis  d'ordonner  leurs  mamelles 

Sus  1'estomach :  s'en  fault  fier  en  elles 

Qu'elles  scauront  descouvrir  un  petit 

Pour  provocquer  des  hommes  1'appetit  .  .  . 

Quand  porteront  le  dueil  de  leurs  marys 

Feront  semblant  d'avoir  les  cueurs  marrys, 

Pour  en  siffler  d'aultres  a  leurs  pippees  .  .  . 

Et  sy  entends  que  les  adolescentes 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  73 

Observent  bien  de  leurs  meres  les  sentes, 
Affin  qu'apres  en  aage  plus  parfaicte 
L'on  dye,  c'est  la  mere  toute  faicte. 

"I  forbid  my  priestesses  to  take  interest  in  tournaments  and 
'  bellic  virtues.'  I  command  them  to  invert  the  Biblical  teaching 
and  to  believe  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  receive  than  to  give. 
However,  in  order  to  ensnare  their  victims,  they  may  give  them 
once  a  week 

Boucquetz  de  fleurs  garniz  de  marjolaine, 

Ou  aultre  cas  de  petite  valeur, 

Car  les  grands  dons  ne  portent  que  malheur. 

Mays  pour  leur  bien  je  veulx  que  soient  venales, 

En  se  vendant  comme  les  bleds  aux  Halles, 

Et  qu'elles  soient  au  baiser  difficiles, 

Mays  au  desduict  humaines  et  faciles, 

Ne  refusant  es  festes  et  festins 

A  leurs  oyseaux  manier  leurs  tetins." 

Upon  concluding  these  behests  to  his  mercenary  subjects, 
Argent  turns  upon  the  crestfallen  Cupid: 

"  Begone,  weakling,  seek  not  to  wound  my  cohorts  with  your 
powerless  darts; 

Retire  toy  es  lieux  sans  longues  poses 
Ou  tu  as  fait  tant  de  metamorphoses. 
Va  t'en  chercher  Thisbee  et  Deiphile, 
Philis,  Phaedra,  et  de  Minos  la  fille, 
Et  ta  Dido,  a  qui  feis  ce  bon  tour 
Quand  veit  sus  mer  Enee  de  sa  tour: 
Va  visiter  le  cueur  Penelope, 
Ou  si  long  temps  tu  fuz  envelope, 
Et  Portia  ta  loyalle  Romaine, 
Que  mourir  feis  de  mort  tant  inhumaine." 

Finally  occur  the  triumph  of  Argent  and  the  banishment  of 

Cupid: 

Ce  conquereur  lors  allant  par  les  rues 
De  riches  draps  et  dorures  tendues, 
Pompeusement  en  char  victorieux 
Dedans  Paris  triumpha  en  maintz  lieux 
Du  dieu  d'amours  triste  et  humilie, 


74  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Trop  rudement  guarrot6  et  Iy6: 
Et,  cela  faict,  comme  personne  ville, 
Le  pauvre  enfant  fut  banny  de  la  ville.1 

Fontaine's  response  to  Papillon's  poem  was  published  in  1537, 
the  year  in  which  his  poems  in  defense  of  Marot  appeared  in  Les 
Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot  contre  Sagon,  La  Hueterie,  et  leurs 
adherentz.  The  plan  followed  by  Maitre  Charles  is  quite  as 
ingenious  as  that  of  Papillon's  satire.  The  reader  is  taken  into  a 
regular  court  of  justice,  with  judge,  bailiffs,  lawyers,  and  the 
usual  crowd  of  loungers.  Among  other  cases,  action  is  being 
brought  against  a  quidam  who  has  been  so  rash  as  to  write  a 
scurrilous  attack  upon  the  god  of  love: 

Lundi  dernier  je  me  mis  sur  les  rancz 
Pour  aller  veoir  juger  des  differentz 
Au  grand  palais  ou  Cupido  preside, 
Et  ou  Venus  avec  leur  train  reside. 
La  force  arrest  obtindrent  amoureux, 
Les  aulcuns  doulx,  les  aultres  vigoreux, 
Car  on  plaida  ce  jour  a  court  ouverte 
Au  beau  parquet  de  la  grand'  salle  verte. 
Par  Vray  Rapport  entre  aultres  accusS 
Fut  un  quidam  de  trop  estre  abus6 
En  escripvant  au  grand  despris  du  juge 
Qui  sans  faveur,  les  deux  yeux  bendez,  juge. 

Vray  Rapport's  indictment  causes  a  hubbub  among  tthe 
loungers,  who  interrupt  proceedings  with  murmurs  and  outcries 
against  the  delinquent.  When  order  is  restored,  Franc  Vouloir, 
Cupid's  defender,  takes  the  floor.  Before  beginning  a  refutation 
of  Papillon's  falsehoods,  he  gives  the  judge  an  idea  of  the  kind 
of  man  they  are  dealing  with: 

Chascun  scait  bien  que  c'est  un  male'vole, 
Qui  ses  escriptz  remplist  tous  de  frivole, 
Un  presumeur  audacieux  quoquart, 
Qui  a  es  dens  tousjours  quelque  brocart, 
Un  grand  bourdeur,  inventeur  de  mensonge. 

1  In  order  to  counteract  somewhat  the  sting  of  his  satire,  Papillon  appended 
to  it  two  short  poems,  A  Vhonneur  d'une  dame  de  Paris  honneste  et  loyatte  and 
Excuse  aux  honnestes  et  loyattes  dames  et  damoysettes  de  Paris. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  75 

The  irate  speaker  then  turns  his  attention  to  Papillon's  poem, 
and  tries  to  disprove  all  its  slanders.  In  the  first  place,  Argent 
has  not  the  power  over  the  women  of  Paris  that  Papillon  as- 
cribes to  him.  It  is  true  that  the  Parisiennes  accept  money  and 
jewels  from  their  admirers,  but  nothing  could  be  more  prepos- 
terous than  the  idea  that  presents  are  everything  in  love: 

N'ouvre  Ton  point  que  par  argent  la  porte  ? 
Ne  fait  on  rien  si  non  que  par  rubiz  ? 
N'a  Ton  acces  qu'en  baillant  des  habitz  ? 
Si  a,  si  a.    Un  homme  en  simple  saye, 
Qui  son  povoir  et  sa  vertu  essaye 
Au  faict  d'amours,  aussi  tost  jouira 
Comme  celuy  qui  riche  se  dira. 

Franc  Vouloir  continues  thus  for  some  time,  and  then  beseeches 
the  court  to  inflict  a  penalty  that  will  vindicate  the  honor  of  the 
judge  and  of  the  women  whose  fair  names  have  been  besmirched 
by  an  idle  prater. 

When  Franc  Vouloir  finishes  his  address,  the  defendant's 
counsel,  Faulx  Entendre,  begins  his  plea.  After  a  few  remarks 
about  the  aspersions  cast  on  his  client  by  Franc  Vouloir,  Faulx 
Entendre  sets  up  the  defense  that  Papillon  is  a  victim  of  circum- 
stances. His  pamphlet  has  been  misinterpreted;  hostile  critics 
have  glanced  through  it  and  pounced  upon  the  "  scrupulous 
passages,"  without  taking  into  account  the  fact  that  the  author 
wrote  it  solely  for  the  good  of  the  public. 

Faulx  Entendre's  harangue  ended,  the  verdict  must  be  given. 
Before  pronouncing  on  the  case,  Cupid  commands  that  Papillon's 
poem  be  brought  into  court.  After  reading  it,  he  brings  the  trial 
to  a  close  by  imposing  a  severe  sentence  not  only  upon  the 
accused,  but  also  upon  the  poem  and  the  printer  who  printed  it: 

Comme  ainsi  soit  qu'ait  commis  cest  este1 
Un  crime  et  cas  de  lese  majeste 
Ce  composeur  encontre  moy  son  prince, 
Banny  sera  de  toute  ma  province: 
Son  livre  aussi  (le  tout  bien  calculi) 
Publiquement  sera  ars  et  bruslS: 


76  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Pareillement  pour  la  faulte  et  traficque 
De  1'imprimeur  tous  ses  biens  on  confisque. 
Oultre  il  est  diet  que  ce  faulx  blasonneur 
RSparera  aux  dames  leur  honneur, 
Desquelles  a  mal  par!6  en  son  livre. 
Que  si  encor  telz  traictez  il  leur  livre, 
Ou  par  brocards  les  picque,  poinct,  ou  mort, 
En  informant  sera  jug£  a  mort. 

The  literary  ancestry  of  Papillon's  Victoire  et  triumphe  d 'Argent 
and  of  Fontaine's  Response  is  clear:  both  hark  back  to  such 
poems  as  Jean  Lemaire  de  Belges's  Temple  de  Venus,  Jean 
Molinet's  Temple  de  Mars,  and  Clement  Marot's  Temple  de 
Cupido,  which  in  turn  were  influenced  by  the  great  source  of 
sources,  the  Roman  de  la  Rose.1  A  comparison  of  Papillon's  and 
Fontaine's  poems  with  the  Temple  de  Cupido  reveals  the  same 
style,  the  same  phraseology,  the  same  mythological  and  allegori- 
cal machinery,  and,  in  a  broader  way,  the  same  general  lack  of 
virility. 

However,  if  Fontaine's  first  two  publications  —  the  poems  in 
defense  of  Marot  against  Sagon  and  the  reply  to  Papillon's  satire 
on  the  women  of  Paris  —  show  clearly  the  effect  of  his  close 
relations  with  Marot,  his  third  publication,  La  Contr'amye  de 
Court,  which  was  strongly  influenced  by  Plato,  represents  his 
first  break  with  the  teachings  of  his  master  and  with  the  traditions 
of  the  past. 

II 

M.  Abel  Lefranc  has  shown  in  a  most  convincing  manner  that 
it  was  only  when  Platonism  had  gained  a  sufficient  number  of 
partisans  in  France  that  the  Renaissance  burst  forth  with  all  its 
power. 

La  renovation  universelle  [says  M.  Lefranc]  dont  le  mot  meme  de  Renais- 
sance evoque  naturellement  1'idee,  ne  s'est  revelee  dans  sa  plenitude  et  n'a 
brille  dans  toute  sa  splendeur  qu'au  moment  ou  la  propagation  des  theories 
platoniciennes  fut  suffisamment  avancee,  et  ou  les  concepts  de  Pamour  et  de 
la  beaute1,  tels  que  les  a  formulas  1'immortel  auteur  du  Banquet,  apparurent 

1  See  the  Guiffrey  edition  of  the  works  of  C16ment  Marot,  vol.  ii,  p.  67,  note  i. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  77 

dans  Fhorizon  intellectuel  des  contemporains  de  Francois  Ier.  Le  champ  de 
1'inspiration  litteraire  se  trouva  du  meme  coup  elargi  et  purifie:  un  monde 
inconnu  s'ouvrit  aux  yeux  des  ecrivains  eblouis.  Us  virent  qu'il  etait  loisible 
a  la  raison  humaine  de  s'elever,  par  sa  seule  vertu,  a  la  contemplation  des 
choses  eternelles.  Ainsi  guides  et  vivifies  par  un  ideal  plus  noble,  ils  s'en- 
gagerent  dans  des  voies  nouvelles,  qui  leur  permirent  d'atteindre  a  la  con- 
naissance  du  beau  et  bientot  de  rexprimer. 1 

The  dissemination  of  the  doctrines  of  Plato  in  France  was 
necessarily  slow.  General  culture  during  the  opening  years  of 
the  reign  of  Francis  I  was  not  high;  a  fondness  for  the  routine  of 
preceding  centuries  was  still  deeply  imbedded  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  took  an  interest  in  intellectual  matters.  The  endeav- 
ors of  the  Parisian  printers  Petit,  Bade,2  and  Gourmont,  of  the 
translators  Chalcidius,  Alcinoiis,  and  a  few  others,  were  crowned 
with  success  only  when  Marguerite  of  Navarre  became  imbued 
with  Platonic  ideas  and  sought  to  spread  them,  at  first  by  means 
of  conversations  with  friends,  and  later  through  the  medium  of 

1  Le  Platonisme  et  la  litterature  en  France  a  I'epoque  de  la  Renaissance  (1500- 
1556),  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  Hit.  de  la  France,  January  15,  1896,  p.  i;  same  article, 
with  modifications,  in  Lefranc,  Grands  ecrivains  franqais  de  la  Renaissance,  pp. 

63  ff. 

2  Although,  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  there  had  appeared  several  Latin 
translations  of  single  works  by  Plato,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  publication  by  Jean 
Petit  and  Josse  Bade  of  Marsilio  Ficino's  Latin  translation  of  Plato's  works  (1518, 
1522,  and  1533)  did  more  to  spread  the  new  ideas  than  all  the  previous  scattered 
efforts  combined.    It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  Ficino's  writings  and 
commentaries  all  is  not  pure  Platonism.    The  scholarly  Italian  was  also  a  warm 
admirer  of  the  Alexandrian  school  of  philosophers,  and  introduced  into  his  remarks 
on  Plato's  works  many  of  their  teachings.    This  Neo-Platonic  element  had  a  strong 
influence  on  some  of  the  writers  of  the  French  Renaissance,  who  contaminated 
Plato's  doctrines  by  adding  the  quibblings  and  mysticism  of  the  later  Greek  philoso- 
phers.   Concerning  the  Platonism  of  the  Renaissance,  Mr.  Arthur  Tilley  says  (The 
Mod.  Lang.  Rev.,  October,  1914,  p.  544) :   "  During  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  Platonism  in  France,  as  in  Italy,  chiefly  meant  that  amalgam  of  Platonism, 
Neo-Platonism  and  Christianity  which  had  been  compounded  by  Marsilio  Ficino 
and  the  Florentine  Academy.    Among  its  developments  were  spiritual  love  and 
mysticism.    The  doctrine  of  spiritual  love  was  based  on  the  Symposium,  but  it  was 
largely  impregnated  with  Neo-Platonism,  and  Ficino's  Latin  commentary  on 
Plato's  famous  dialogue  was  the  starting-point  for  numerous  discussions  on  the 
subject.  .  .  .   The  mystical  current  also  had  its  main  source  in  Neo-Platonism.   Its 


78  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

the  writers  under  her  patronage.1  The  efforts  of  Bonaventure 
des  PSriers  and  fitienne  Dolet  in  the  propaganda  are  well  known : 
the  former  had  the  honor  of  making  the  first  French  translation 
of  a  dialogue  by  Plato;2  the  latter,  by  his  translations  and 
general  interest  in  the  works  of  the  divine  philosopher,  caused 
himself  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  finally  reached  the 
stake  in  the  Place  Maubert  through  the  vindictiveness  of  relent- 
less persecutors  who  pretended  to  see  in  his  translation  of  the 
Aodochus  *  a  phrase  that  jarred  on  orthodox  ears. 

Although  these  two  writers  played  important  parts  in  the 
propagation  of  the  new  doctrines,  the  post  of  honor  is  generally 
accorded  another  poet  who  enjoyed  the  protection  of  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  Antoine  Heroet,4  whom  fitienne  Dolet  aptly  called 
"  heureux  illustrateur  du  haut  sens  de  Platon."  In  1542  Heroet 
published  a  small  volume  entitled  La  Parfaicte  Amye,  which  won 
for  him  a  prominent  place  in  French  literature,  and  made  him  one 
of  the  most  important  precursors  of  the  Pleiade. 

Before  treating  Heroet's  Parfaicte  Amye,  it  is  necessary  to 
examine  L'Amie  de  Court,  by  Bertrand  de  La  Borderie,  and  La 
Contr'amye  de  Court,  by  Charles  Fontaine,  which  were  the  be- 
ginning of  the  so-called  "  querelle  des  amies,"  a  debate  which,  in 
addition  to  La  Borderie  and  Fontaine,  brought  into  the  lists 
Heroet,  Paul  Angier,  Almaque  Papillon,  and  Gilles  d'Aurigny, 
the  one  side  upholding  honorable  and,  in  some  cases,  genuine 

earliest  exponent  in  France  was  Jacques  Lef&vre  d'fitaples;  it  was  he  who  inspired 
Bishop  Briconnet,  and  it  was  Briconnet  who  inspired  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  in 
whom  both  currents  meet." 

1  Concerning  the  probable  causes  of  Marguerite's  turning  to  Plato,  see  Lefranc, 
Revue  d'Hisl.  lilt,  de  la  France,  1896,  p.  10,  and  Lefranc,  Les  Dernieres  Potsies  de 
M.  de  N.,  Paris,  1896,  pp.  viii-x. 

1  Lysis,  1541  (?) 

*  Then  attributed  to  Plato.    Dolet's  translation  was  published  hi  1544. 

*  Concerning  H6roe't,  see  W.  A.  R.  Kerr,  Antoine  Heroet's  Parfaite  Amye  (Publ. 
of  the  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n  of  America,  1905,  pp.  567-583);  F.  Gohin,  (Euvres  poetiques 
d'Heroet,  Paris,  1009;  J.  Arnoux,  Un  pricurseur  de  Ronsard,  Antoine  Heroet,  neo- 
platonicien  et  poete  (1492-1568),  Digne,  1913;  A.  Lefranc,  Grands  ecrivains  franfais 
de  la  Renaissance,  Paris,  1914,  pp.  85  ff. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  79 

Platonic  love,  the  other  a  more  worldly  love  branded  by  Plato  as 
vulgar  and  inconstant.1 

The  "  querelle  des  amies  "  opened  in  1541  with  the  publication 
of  the  Amie  de  Court,2  by  Bertrand  de  La  Borderie,  one  of  the 
poets  to  whom  Marot  appealed  when  attacked  by  Sagon,  and  the 

1  Claude  Collet,  in  a  dizain  accompanying  d'Aurigny's  Tuteur  d'amour  (1546), 
mentions  all  the  pieces  but  one  that  appeared  during  the  debate: 

Tous  ceulx  qui  ont  veu  la  per/aide  amye  [IKroet] 

Peuvent  juger  estre  un  oeuvre  perfaict: 

L'amye  aussi  de  cour  non  endormye  [La  Borderie] 

M6rite  bien  grand  louenge  en  effect: 

La  contr'amye  est  un  oeuvre  bien  faict  [Fontaine], 

Et  le  nouvel  amour  semblablement  [Papillon]: 

Brief  tous  ceulx  la  ont  escript  baultement 

De  Cupido  et  de  Vfous  aussi: 

Mais  si  d'iceulx  as  eu  contentement, 

Moins  n'en  auras  en  lisant  cestuy  cy. 

Collet  omits  Paul  Angier's  Experience,  presumably  because  nothing  good  could  be 
said  of  it.  —  With  the  exception  of  the  Par/aide  Amye,  none  of  the  poems  mentioned 
by  Collet  has  been  honored  with  anything  like  a  complete  analysis  or  criticism.  In 
the  following  pages  I  shall  endeavor  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  all  the  pieces,  cutting 
short,  however,  the  consideration  of  the  Tuteur  d'amour  and  the  Nouvel  amour 
which,  in  reality,  had  no  direct  connection  with  the  "  querelle  des  amies." 

2  Paris,  Gilles  Corrozet.  —  M.  Gohin  was  the  first  to  establish  the  order  of  com- 
position of  the  three  principal  poems  of  the  "  querelle  des  amies."    M.  Gohin  says 
(CEumes  poetiques  d'Heroet,  pp.  xix,  xxvii) :  "  D'apres  1'ordre  occupe"  par  divers 
opuscules  d'amour  dans  le  recueil  collectif  (Opuscules  d'amour,  Lyon,  Jean  de 
Tournes,  1547)  qu'il  avait  sous  les  yeux,  Goujet  a  suppose1,  et  on  a  r6pe"t6  apres  lui, 
que  la  Parfaicte  Amye  avait  provoqu6  une  po!6mique,  et  que  I' Amie  de  Court  de  La 
Borderie  en  6tait  la  refutation.    C'est  le  contraire  qui  est  vrai:  la  Parfaicte  Amye 
est  une  r6ponse  £  I' Amie  de  Court.  .  .  .     C'est  Charles  Fontaine  .  .  .  qui  le 
premier  riposta  "  [jl  I'Amie  de  Court].    The  privilege  of  Gilles  Corrozet's  edition 
of  the  Amie  de  Court  is  dated  March  9,  1541  (n.  s.  1542);  the  preface  of  fitienne 
Dolet's  first  edition  of  the  Amie  de  Court  is  dated  May  15,  1542.    Dolet's  preface 
to  the  first  edition  of  the  Parfaicte  Amye  is  dated  June  i,  1542.    The  first  edition 
of  Fontaine's  Contr'amye  de  Court  (Paris,  Adam  Saulnier,  1541)  must  have  appeared 
between  March  9,  1542  (n.  s.)  and  June  i,  1542.    It  should  be  added  that  Mr. 
Arthur  Tilley  (The  Mod.  Lang.  Rev.,  October,  1914,  p.  546)  accepts  M.  Gohin's 
chronology  of  the  Amie  de  Court,  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  and  the  Parfakte  Amye. 
—  M.  Gohin  (p.  xx)  has  also  shown  that  the  "point  de  depart  de  ce  d6bat  fut 
la  publication  et  la  vogue  du  Courlisan,  ouvrage  de  1'Italien  Balthasar  Casti- 
glione."  —  Concerning  La  Borderie's  reason  for  writing  the  Amie  de  Court,  M. 
Gohin  says  (pp.  xxiv  ff .) :  "  L'Amie  de  Court  de  La  Borderie  s'annonce  comme  une 
protestation  centre  toutes  les  complaintes  qui  celelaraient  la  puissance  divine  de 


8o  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

author  of  a  dull  poem,  Discours  du  voyage  a  Constantinople 
envoyt  du  dit  lieu  a  une  damoyselle  franqoyse  (1542). x 

The  Amie  de  Court,  as  represented  by  La  Borderie,  is  an  arrant 
coquette.  She  cannot  comprehend  the  inane  talk  she  hears  about 
a  god  of  love  who  conquers  and  torments  mortals,  and  compels 
them  to  do  his  bidding. 

Je  croy  le  tout  n'estre  que  poesie, 

Ou  mieulx  dire  humaine  frenaisie, 

Qui  la  nature  enchante  soubz  couleur 

De  deite  de  frivole  valeur. 

Or,  done,  ce  mal  qu'on  treuve  tant  amer 

Le  nomme  dieu  qui  le  vouldra  nommer. 

J'apelleray  telle  divinite 

Plus  tost  folie  ou  infelicite 

Pour  tous  ceulx  la  qui  s'en  laissent  saisir, 

Et  pour  moy  seule  aggreable  plaisir, 

Qui  scay  tresbien  comme  il  la  fault  conduire 

Et  son  tourment  en  liesse  reduire.2 

Pamour,  tels  certain  Trophee  d'amour,  ou  la  Definition  d' Amour  de  Saint-Gelais,  ou 
Douleur  et  Volupte  d'He'roet.  La  Borderie  se  r£crie  centre  ces  voix 

piteuses  et  dolentes 
Qui  plaincte  font  des  peines  violentes 
Qu'ung  Dieu  d'aimer  (comme  ils  dysent)  leur  cause. 

II  semble  viser  tout  d'abord  d'autres  ceuvres  que  le  Courtisan;  en  fait,  c'est  de  ce 
livre  qu'il  a  tir6  la  matiere  de  son  poeme;  les  details  curieux  que  donne  Castiglione 
sur  les  galanteries  dont  les  dames  sont  1'objet  a  la  cour  et  sur  les  complaisances 
qu'elles  montrent,  ont  £t6  repris  par  La  Borderie,  non  plus  pour  les  condamner,  mais 
pour  les  justifier;  toutefois,  I'exagSration  des  traits  et  Peffronterie  des  aveux  sem- 
blent  toujours  faire  tourner  1'apologie  en  satire."  —  Baldassare  Castiglione's 
Cortegiano  was  first  published  in  Italy  in  1528.  In  1537  appeared  the  first  French 
translation,  by  Jacques  Colin.  Concerning  the  popularity  of  the  Cortegiano  in 
France,  see  Gohin,  pp.  xxii  ff. 

1  Concerning  La  Borderie,  about  whose  life  little  is  known,  see  La  Croix  du 
Maine,  vol.  i,  p.  94;  Goujet,  Bibl.franq.,  vol.  xi,  pp.  148  and  156;  Viollet-le-Duc, 
Bibl.  poet.,  vol.  i,  p.  165;  Brunet,  Manuel,  vol.  iii,  col.  717;  the  Guiffrey  edition  of 
Cl.  Marot's  works,  vol.  iii,  p.  582,  note  2;  F.  Gohin,  (Euvres  poeliques  d'Heroet,  Paris, 
1909,  pp.  xxiv  ff.;  V.  L.  Bourrilly,  B.  de  La  Borderie  et  le  "Discours  du  voyage  de  Con- 
stantinople "  (1537-38),  in  the  Revue  des  Etudes  rabelaisiennes,  1911,  pp.  183  ff. 

2  All  the  poems  of  the  "  querelle  des  amies  "  are  monologues.    The  choice  of  this 
form  was  probably  due,  as  has  been  suggested,  to  the  influence  of  Boccaccio's 
Fiammetta. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  81 

The  frivolous  maiden  explains  as  follows  how  she  succeeded  in 
overcoming  Cupid  and  in  changing  his  torments  into  happiness: 

"  When  very  young  I  observed  that  honor  and  authority  are 
highly  praised  here  below,  and  I  decided  that  woman  can  gain  an 
honorable  and  authoritative  position  only  through  her  grace  and 
beauty.  So  I,  whom  Heaven  had  blessed  with  comeliness,  began 
to  arrange  my  hair  and  '  to  conduct  my  green  eyes  '  to  the  best 
advantage.  I  did  not  do  this  with  the  view  of  attracting  men,  for 
the  idea  of  winning  an  '  amy  '  had  not  yet  entered  my  mind.  But 
when 

Sur  les  quainze  ans  le  corps  plaisant  a  veoir 
Fut  consumme,  et  1'esprit  de  scavoir, 

"  adorers  began  to  flock  around  me; 

Je  retiens  tout,  et  personne  ne  chasse, 
Fondant  ma  gloire  et  louange  estimee 
Sans  aymer  nul,  estre  de  tous  aymee, 
Qui  est  le  point  de  mon  enseignement. 

"  Do  you  think,  ladies,  that  I  succumbed  to  any  of  these 
suitors  ?  Far  from  it.  I  merely  maneuvered  in  such  a  way  that 
the  strongest  became  as  clay  in  my  hands.  Was  I  ill  and  tortured 
and  feverish  ?  Nonsense! 

car  mon  cueur  de  soy  maistre 
Cognoist  1 'amour  sans  le  vouloir  cognoistre. 

"  You  are  doubtless  wondering,  my  good  ladies,  how  my  youth- 
ful heart  contrived  to  resist  Cupid's  assaults: 

Je  Fay  loge  en  si  forte  maison, 
Je  1'ay  muny  de  telle  garnison, 
Que  Fennemy  ne  luy  peult  faire  offence: 
En  une  tour  d'invincible  deffence, 
Fermete  dicte,  est  mon  cueur  residant, 
Duquel  Honneur  est  chef  et  president, 
Accompagne  de  Crainte  et  d'Innocence 
Pour  resister  contre  Concupiscence, 
Laquelle  s'est  avec  Amour  rengee: 1 

1  Among  Cupid's  followers  are  also  mentioned  Espoir,  Tourment,  Soucy, 
Volupte',  Joye,  Plaisir,  and  Langue-Diserte.  The  influence  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose 
is  evident. 


82  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Et  ont  mon  cueur  et  sa  place  assieg6e, 

En  luy  faisant  infinite  d'alarmes, 

De  feux  l£giers,  tresdangereuses  armes, 

.De  traictz  poignans,  de  flesches,  et  de  dardz, 

Dont  sont  muniz  Amour  et  ses  souldars. 

"  On  my  side  I  had  also  Constance,  Chastet6,  Foy,  Tempe- 
rance, Conseil,  Honnestete,  Bon-Advis,  Raison,  Jugement,  Pru- 
dence, Entendement,  M6moire,  Soing,  and  Esprit.  Secure  in  my 
tower,  I  laughed  to  scorn  poor  Cupid's  emissaries  with  their  fair 
words  and  pretty  promises  of  happiness  and  good  fortune. 

"  It  may  seem  strange  that  I  was  not  vanquished  by  any  of  my 
worshippers,  and  yet  led  them  on  with  my  smiles  and  blandish- 
ments. I  was  cautious  enough  to  take  in  my  net  a  wealthy 
admirer  or  two, 

Pour  avoir  tout  ce  dont  j'ay  besoing  d'eulx, 
Accoutrements,  anneaubc,  chaines,  dorures, 
Nouveaulx  habitz  et  nouvelles  parures. 

"  Gossips  will  say,  perchance,  that  a  maiden  cannot  receive 
such  valuable  presents  without  granting  in  return  favors  which 
are  scarcely  compatible  with  virtue.  Rubbish!  I  did  my  suitors 
only  too  much  honor  when  I  accepted  their  gifts  to  worry  whether 
they  were  satisfied.  This  explanation,  I  know,  will  not  protect 
me  against  slanderers.  Let  them  say  what  they  will.  I  am  well 
aware  that  virtue  is  a  treasure  which,  once  lost,  can  never  be 
regained.  I  walk  about  the  streets  without  the  guiding  hand  of 
some  crone,  it  is  true,  but  that  does  not  prove  that  my  conduct 
is  not  as  it  should  be.  It  merely  indicates  that  I  do  not  intend 
to  fall  into  the  ranks  of  my  weak-minded  sisters  who  shrink  from 
asserting  their  independence  and  allow  themselves  to  be  lorded 
over  by  man. 

Je  me  complainctz  d'un  erreur  de  nature, 
Puis  qu'en  faisant  Phumaine  creature 
EUe  voulut  nostre  povoir  ravir, 
Et  a  celluy  des  hommes  1'asservir. 

"  In  the  distribution  of  power,  nature  should  have  been  more 
discriminating.  There  are  women  and  women  —  intelligent, 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  83 

strong-minded  women,  and  silly,  cringing  dunces.  Let  the  latter 
bear  the  knocks  and  cuffs  of  their  lords  and  masters,  but  pray  do 
not  think  of  subjecting  the  former  to  the  rule  of  dull-witted  boors 
who,  by  their  jealousy,  severity,  and  violence,  make  themselves 

unbearable. 

Je  leur  [aux  hommes]  demande  ou  sont  en  evidence 

Vertu,  scavoir  ?  ou  font  ilz  residence  ? 

Esse  dedans  leurs  rustiques  maisons 

Ou  1'on  n'apprent  qu'  a  paistre  les  oysons  ? 

Ou  a  nourrir  en  leur  fascheux  mesnaige 

Quelque  animal  autant  comme  eulx  saulvaige  ? 

"  I  cannot  dismiss  from  my  mind  the  thought  that  I  may  be 
suspected  of  having  yielded  to  some  of  my  suitors.  In  order  to 
dispel  all  doubts,  I  shall  cite  a  specific  incident: 

Je  diray  done  .  .  . 

Que  quelque  fois  dedans  mon  lict  couchee, 
Un  survenant  maulgre  moy  m'a  touchee 
En  la  partie  en  moy  la  plus  parfaicte, 
Au  tetin  ferme,  ou  la  cuisse  refaicte. 

"  O  ye  prudes!  I  see  already  your  uplifted  hands  and  hear 
your  hypocritical  clamor.  Pray  calm  yourselves.1  I  suffered  no 
indignities  at  the  hands  of  my  curious  visitor.  Moreover,  had 
he  sought  to  overstep  the  bounds  of  propriety,  he  could  not  have 
done  so  without  my  consent.  And  the  result  ? 

Suis  doublement  en  son  cueur  estimee, 
Pour  avoir  veu  en  moy  1'esprit  et  corps 
De  beaulte  chaste  unir  les  deux  accordz  .  .  . 
Pourtant  ne  veulx  par  mes  dictz  voz  beaultez 
(Dames)  induire  a  telles  privaultez. 
Toutes  n'avez  (peult  estre)  la  Constance 
Si  bien  que  moy  .  .  . 
Rien  ne  me  sert  tant  que  la  cognoissance 
Que  j'ay  de  moy,  qui  me  donne  puissance 
De  refrener  toute  envie  soubdaine, 
D'endurer  soif  au  pied  d'une  fontaine. 

1  Concerning  prudes,  the  Amie  de  Court  says: 

Mais  au  dehors  fern  mes  si  difficiles, 
Par  le  dedans  je  les  cuide  faciles. 


84  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

"You  are  wondering,  ladies,  what  sort  of  wooer  I  prefer.  Ah, 
give  me  a  reckless  young  blade  as  hot  as  fire  and  as  daring  as  sin, 

Car  soubdain  naist,  et  soubdain  meur  en  eulx 
Tout  app6tit,  ainsi  que  feu  de  paille. 

"  But,  after  all,  I  ought  not  to  express  a  preference  for  any  of 
my  worshippers,  —  all  are  so  diverting.  Some  drive  away  my 
ennui  with  their  grace  and  courtesy,  others  with  their  gentleness 
and  pretty  speeches,  and  even  the  simpletons  bring  cheer  to  my 
weary  soul.  But  as  for  loving  them, 

Si  c'est  amour  que  d'aymer  tout  cela, 
J'en  ayme  plus  de  mille  fa  et  la. 

"  A  lucrative  marriage  is  my  only  aim.  The  husband  of  my 
choice  need  not  be  endowed  with  intellectual  qualities;  only  let 
him  have  a  well-filled  purse,  and  I  shall  require  nothing  more. 
Should  I  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  marry  a  dullard,  I  could  soon 
make  him  clever;  should  he  be  cruel  and  haughty,  my  gentleness 
would  soon  overcome  him.  Animals  can  be  trained,  and  so  why 
not  men  ?  But  supposing  I  should  wed  an  absolutely  untrainable 
husband; 

Hymen,  Juno,  vous,  dieux  de  manage, 

Destournez  moy  ce  sinestre  praesaige. 

"  However,  my  fears  are  groundless.  My  husband  will  be '  wise 
and  honest/  and  we  shall  settle  down  to  a  peaceful,  happy  life. 

Et  de  sentir  Pamour  commenceray: 

Non  point  Pamour  qui  blesse  et  qui  tourmente, 

De  qui  chascun  se  plainct  et  se  lamente: 

Mais  bien  Pamour  qui  est  incomparable, 

D'ung  mutuel  plaisir  inenarrable  .  .  . 

O  bien  heureuse,  O  vraye  amour  future, 

Que  je  prevoy  certaine  en  mon  augure!  " 

With  this  inconsistency  on  the  part  of  a  maiden  who  has 
declared  at  great  length  that  she  is  proof  against  love,  and  fur- 
thermore that  she  does  not  desire  to  come  under  its  sway,  the 
Amie  de  Court  comes  to  an  end. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  85 

It  is  only  too  evident,  as  M.  Gohin  has  suggested,  that  La 
Borderie  must  not  be  taken  too  seriously  in  his  defense  of  the 
Amie  de  Court.  The  young  lady's  brazenness  and  her  eagerness 
to  confess  what  she  pretends  to  regard  as  peccadillos  must  force 
the  reader  to  conclude  that  La  Borderie  intended  his  poem  as  a 
satire  rather  than  an  apology.  If,  however,  he  really  meant  to 
write  a  defense  of  the  Amie  de  Court's  ignoble  conception  of  the 
relations  of  the  sexes,  he  went  a  step  too  far;  his  heroine,  in  her 
effort  to  set  herself  up  as  an  independent,  self -asserting  "  new 
woman,"  harps  so  much  upon  her  chastity  that  one  is  apt  to 
think  that  the  lady  doth  protest  too  much,  and  that,  if  she  resisted 
the  onslaught  of  the  visitor  who  dallied  with  her  in  her  couch,  she 
may  not  have  been  so  impregnable  in  some  of  her  other  en- 
counters. 

As  regards  the  Amie  de  Court  as  a  whole,  I  agree  with  M. 
Lefranc's  revised  opinion: 1  it  is  highly  entertaining  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  and  if  one  cannot  admire  the  author's  skill  in 
versifying,  one  may  at  least  commend  him  for  presenting  an 
excellent  sketch  of  a  cold,  heartless,  calculating,  cynical  coquette. 

It  was  as  an  opponent  of  the  ideas  set  forth  by  the  Amie  de 
Court  that  Charles  Fontaine  entered  the  "  querelle  des  amies." 
His  contribution  to  the  debate,  La  Contr'amye  de  Court,  was  first 
published  in  1541  by  the  Parisian  printer  Adam  Saulnier,  and, 
judging  from  the  number  of  editions,  it  must  have  pleased  the 
readers  of  the  period  to  an  uncommon  degree.2  This  popularity 
is  not  surprising.  The  Contr'amye  de  Court  is  in  many  respects  a 
remarkable  poem,  and  has  been  neglected  only  too  long  by  liter- 
ary historians.  The  critics  who  have  sought  to  discover  the 
origins  of  Platonism  in  France  have  been  too  eager  to  emphasize 

1  Grands  icrvoains  franqais  de  la  Renaissance,  pp.  95  ff.    In  an  earlier  judgment 
M.  Lefranc  says  that  La  Borderie's  poem  is  prolix  and  wearisome. 

2  Colletet  speaks  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  as  follows  (Vies  des  poetesfranfois, 
fol.  197) :   "...  pofime  aprfes  tout  qui  fut  si  favorablement  regu  a  la  cour  du  roi 
Francois  Ier,  et  depuis  en  celle  du  roi  Henri  II,  qu'il  ne  se  trouve  guere  de  ce  temps-la 
de  vers  re'imprime's  tant  de  fois  ni  en  plus  de  sortes  de  marges,  puisqu'il  se  trouve  in- 
8°,  in-i2°  et  in-i6°." 


86  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

the  importance  of  Heroet  and  the  Queen  of  Navarre  to  do  justice 
to  some  of  their  most  efficient  collaborators.  Though  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  H6roet  and  Marguerite  deserve  the  greatest  credit 
for  circulating  the  new  ideas,  it  is  manifestly  unfair  to  allow  them 
completely  to  overshadow  such  a  writer  as  Fontaine,  who  was  not 
only  one  of  their  most  able  co-workers,  but  who,  as  I  shall  prove, 
in  his  Contr'amye  de  Court  published  a  work  tinged  deeply  with 
Platonism  before  the  publication  of  any  of  the  works  of  Heroet  or 
of  Marguerite,  and  before  the  publication  of  Maurice  Serve's 
D&ie  (1544),  of  Des  Periers's  translation  of  the  Lysis  (1544),  of 
Gilles  Corrozet's  Conte  du  Rossignol  (1547),  and  of  all  the  other 
writings  that  hold  a  high  place  in  French  literature  because  of 
their  Platonic  nature.1 

If  Fontaine  was  the  first  to  introduce  Platonic  doctrines  into  a 
published  literary  work  of  importance,  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  be  justified  in  assuming  that  he  was,  to  say  the  least, 
probably  among  the  first  to  circulate  these  Platonic  doctrines  in 
manuscript  before  their  publication.  In  1540,  before  the  opening 
of  the  "  querelle  des  amies,"  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe  coupled 
the  names  of  "  Heroet  le  subtil  "  and  of  "  Fontaines  le  gentil," 

Deux  en  leurs  sons  une  personne  unie.1 

Now,  there  was  no  reason  why  Sainte-Marthe  should  couple 
Heroet  and  Fontaine,  except  that  they  wrote  poems  of  a  similar 
nature,  that  is,  since  Heroet's  chief  poems  are  impregnated  with 
Platonism,  poems  of  a  Platonic  nature.  If,  then,  in  1540  Sainte- 
Marthe  knew  Fontaine  as  an  admirer  of  Plato  and  as  a  dissem- 
inator of  Plato's  doctrines,  it  may  be  safely  conjectured  that 
before  1540  Fontaine  was  interested  in  Plato  and  in  Platonism. 
If  such  was  the  case,  Fontaine,  not  only  because  of  his  early 

1  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  in  his  Poesie  franqoise  (1540),  made,  as  Miss  Ruutz- 
Rees  puts  it  (Ch.  de  Sainte-Marthe,  New  York,  1910,  p.  355),  "  rather  weak  attempts 
at  Platonism."  Perhaps  one  or  two  other  poets  did  the  same  before  1541,  but  their 
feeble  efforts  are  not  worthy  of  consideration.  To  use  M.  Lefranc's  words,  before 
1541  Platonism  was  the  "  apanage  des  eYudits  et  des  penseurs  isoles." 

1  Cf.  p.  63,  above. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  87 

publication  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  but  also  because  of  his 
early  interest  in  Platonism  in  general,  would  have  to  be  ranked 
as  one  of  those  who  introduced  Platonism  into  French  literature.1 
Furthermore,  so  far  as  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  is  concerned,  his 
Platonism  is  purer  and  freer  from  outside  influences  than  is  that 
of  Heroet  or  of  Marguerite.  He  bases  himself  on  the  Symposium,2 
and  thus  avoids  the  introduction  into  his  poem  of  some  of  the 
Neo-Platonic  subtilities  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  Parfaicte 
Amye  and  in  the  mystical  works  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre.3 

It  is  not  as  an  artistic  production  that  I  desire  to  call  attention 
to  the  Contr'amye  de  Court.  Its  style  may  be  characterized  in  a 
few  words:  it  is  rambling,  prolix,  full  of  repetitions,  and,  to  the 
modern  reader,  often  quite  lacking  in  charm.  I  would  call  atten- 
tion particularly  to  the  ideas  contained  in  its  thirteen  hundred 
verses,  for  some  of  these  ideas  were  there  put  before  the  general 
public  of  the  sixteenth  century  for  the  first  time.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  French  poets  who  in  1541  surpassed 
Fontaine  in  the  ability  to  compose  graceful  verses  were  few.4 
If  we  can  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  a  reader  of  the  period 
in  which  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  written,  we  can  readily 

1  H6roet's  Androgyne  de  Platan  was  presented  in  manuscript  to  Francis  I  in 
1536.    It  was  not  published  until  1542.    If  Heroet  was  interested  in  Plato  in  1536, 
there  is  no  reason  why  Fontaine  may  not  have  been.  —  As  for  the  probable  date  of 
the  beginning  of  Marguerite  of  Navarre's  interest  in  Platonism,  cf.  Lefranc,  Grands 
ecrivains  de  la  Renaissance,  p.  80:  "  Ce  fut  tres  probablement  dans  les  environs  de 
l'ann£e  1540  que  commenfa  a  s'6veiller  dans  Fame  de  la  reine  de  Navarre  un  gout 
marquS  pour  les  doctrines  platoniciennes." 

2  Although  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  contains  some  borrowings  from  the  third  and 
fourth  books  of  the  Cortegiano,  its  Platonism  is  clearly  derived  from  the  Sympo- 
sium.   When  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  and  the  Cortegiano  treat  the  same  Platonic 
questions,  the  treatment  of  the  Contr'amye  is  fuller  and  closer  to  the  Symposium.   In 
many  cases  the  Contr'amye  has  ideas  that  are  in  the  Symposium,  but  are  not  in  the 
Cortegiano. 

3  The  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  dedicated  to  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine.    The  edi- 
tion published  in  1544  by  Galiot  du  Pr£,  of  Paris,  which  I  have  used  as  a  basis  for  a 
synopsis,  contains  a  notice  to  the  reader  by  "  a  friend  of  the  author,"  probably 
Denys  Sauvage. 

4  Of  the  contemporary  poets  who  had  published  anything  before  1541,  Marot  and 
Sceve  were  perhaps  the  only  ones  superior  to  Fontaine. 


88  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

understand  why  it  met  with  the  warm  approval  of  the  public. 
Its  style  was  not  then  thought  sufficiently  weak  to  prevent 
readers  from  recognizing  that  it  was  worthy  of  attention  because 
of  the  attitude  taken  by  its  author  in  the  most  important  intel- 
lectual question  of  the  epoch. 

The  Contr'amye  de  Court  opens  her  discourse  by  telling  of  the 
indignation  she  felt  when  she  first  learned  of  the  contents  of  the 
Amie  de  Court,  which  she  has  decided  to  endeavor  to  refute. 
Feeling  that  she  is  not  equal  to  the  task,  she  prays  to  the  god  of 
love  for  inspiration.  Cupid  not  only  answers  her  prayer,  but 
shows  his  affection  for  his  faithful  servant  by  appearing  before 
her  in  his  dove-drawn  chariot,  accompanied  by  a  brilliant  retinue 
of  captive  youths  and  maidens.1  To  her  he  says: 

Or  sus,  fay  ton  debvoir 
De  soustenir  ton  honneur  et  pouvoir. 
Je  suys  puissant:  tu  voys  de  toute  taille 
Les  prisonniers  que  je  prens  en  bataille. 
Honnore  suys:  tu  voys  Phommaige  et  foy 
•  Des  peuples  grands  vers  moy,  qui  suys  leur  roy. 

Mon  char  voys  plain  de  richesses  haultaines, 
Mes  aesles  d'or  et  de  perles  tant  plaines. 

Who  is  this  Contr'amye  de  Court  for  whom  a  god  quits  his 
heavenly  abode  ?  To  the  ladies  she  is  addressing  she  gives  com- 
plete information  about  her  early  training,  the  origin  of  her 
fidelity  to  Love,  and  the  benefits  she  has  received  through  this 
fidelity.  She  is  the  daughter  of  an  honorable  merchant,  who 
spent  much  of  his  time  in  study  and  in  the  company  of  scholars, 
and  who  had  an  extreme  dislike  for  the  vain  and  idle  rich  and  for 
their  disregard  of  virtue.2  Night  and  day  he  preached  to  his  two 
daughters  on  love: 

Du  dieu  Amour  tousjours  estoit  son  chant: 
Du  dieu  Amour  tousjours  alloit  preschant. 

1  Fontaine's  description  of  Love,  his  equipage,  and  his  train,  is  taken  from  Ovid's 
Amores,  i,  2.  Compare  the  beginning  of  C16ment  Marot's  Temple  de  Cupido. 

1  Concerning  Goujet's  conjecture  that  Fontaine  is  here  describing  his  own  father, 
see  p.  5,  above. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  89 

Aymez  1' Amour  (disoit  il),  mes  fillettes, 
C'est  un  grand  dieu,1  soyez  a  luy  subjectes: 
Ce  temps  pendant  que  1'Amour  aymerez, 
Pendant  que  vous  ses  subjectes  serez, 
N'en  doubtez  point,  Amour  vous  maintiendra 
Heureusement,  et  tout  bien  vous  viendra. 
C'est  le  seul  dieu  entre  tous  autres  dieux 
Le  plus  benin  et  le  plus  gracieux: 
C'est  le  seul  dieu  qui  les  autres  accorde: 
C'est  le  seul  dieu  de  paix  et  de  Concorde, 
Qui  les  haultz  dieux  des  hommes  offensez 
Va  appaisant.2 

The  "  loyal  merchant  "  now  begins  a  discourse  on  the  benefits 
of  love  and  its  presence  not  only  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  women, 
but  in  the  lower  animals  and  inanimate  objects  throughout  the 

universe : 

C'est  celuy  dieu  par  qui  fut  fait  ce  monde, 
Qui  entretient  ceste  machine  ronde: 
Car  le  soleil,  la  lune  et  les  pianettes, 
Qu'on  voit  au  ciel  tant  belles  et  tant  nettes, 
Ne  donneroient  ca  bas  leurs  influences, 
Dont  les  effectz  nous  donnent  apparences, 
Si  ce  n'estoit  qu'Amour  le  puissant  dieu 
Les  incitast  regarder  ce  bas  lieu: 
Pour  y  produyre  a  nostre  utilite 
De  tous  les  biens  une  fertilite. 
Les  blez,  les  vins,  les  arbres,  et  les  fruictz 
Viennent  de  la,  et  par  ce  sont  produictz. 

Who  preserves  harmony  among  the  elements  ?  continues  the 
merchant.  Who  regulates  the  hot  and  the  cold,  the  dry  and  the 

1  Cf .  Symposium:   "  Phaedrus  began  by  affirming  that  Love  is  a  mighty  god, 
and  wonderful  among  gods  and  men  "  (Jowett,  The  Dialogues  of  Plato,  1892,  vol.  i, 
p.  548). 

2  Cf.  Symposium,  Agathon's  speech:  "  And  so  Love  set  in  order  the  empire  of  the 
gods.  ...    In  the  days  of  old  .  .  .  dreadful  deeds  were  done  among  the  gods,  for 
they  were  ruled  by  Necessity;  but  now,  since  the  birth  of  Love,  and  from  the  love  of 
the  beautiful,  has  sprung  every  good  in  heaven  and  earth  "  (ibid.,  i,  567).    Eryxi- 
machus's  speech:  "And  the  love,  more  especially,  which  is  concerned  with  the  good, 
and  which  is  perfected  in  company  with  temperance  and  justice,  whether  among 
gods  or  men,  has  the  greatest  power,  and  is  the  source  of  all  our  happiness  and  har- 
mony, and  makes  us  friends  with  the  gods  who  are  above  us,  and  with  one  another  " 
(ibid.,  i,  558). 


90  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

humid  in  our  mortal  bodies,  and  thus  prevents  sickness  and 

death  ? 

Et  pour  parler  des  choses  de  plus  pres, 
Les  61emens  en  un  bel  ordre  expres 
Feroient  combat  et  tres  grande  follie, 
Si  ce  n'estoit  qu'Amour  les  joinct  et  lie. 
Et  si  1'Amour  ne  les  attempe'roit, 
En  nostre  corps,  la  guerre  se  feroit: 
Le  chault  vouldroit  sur  le  froit  dominer: 
Le  froit  vouldroit  le  chault  exterminer: 
Pareillement  le  sec  avec  1'humide 
Se  combatroit,  s'il  estoit  d'amour  vuide: 
Dont  en  noz  corps  causeroit  tel  discord, 
Incontinent  maladie  et  puys  mort : 
Si  ce  n'estoit  Amour  le  dieu  puissant, 
Auquel  ilz  vont  tres  bien  obeissant  .  .  . 
Amour  partout  son  povoir  a  seme, 
Et  par  ainsi  Pun  est  de  1'aultre  aym£. 
Amour  partout  sa  bonne  graine  seme, 
Et  de  la  vient  que  toute  chose  s'ayme.1 

Who  causes  water  to  rise  in  a  canal,  notwithstanding  the  specific 
gravity  of  water  is  such  as  to  make  this  seemingly  impossible  ? 
Who  makes  the  flames  dart  into  the  ambient  air  ?  Love,  and 

1  Concerning  this  universal  love,  cf.  Symposium:  "  Eryximachus  spoke  as  fol- 
lows: Seeing  that  Pausanias  made  a  fair  beginning,  and  but  a  lame  ending,  I  must 
endeavor  to  supply  his  deficiency.  I  think  that  he  has  rightly  distinguished  two 
kinds  of  love.  But  my  art  further  informs  me  that  the  double  love  is  not  merely  an 
affection  of  the  soul  of  man  towards  the  fair,  or  towards  anything,  but  is  to  be  found 
in  the  bodies  of  all  animals  and  in  productions  of  the  earth,  and  I  may  say  in  all  that 
is.  ...  Now  the  most  hostile  [elements  in  the  human  body]  are  the  most  opposite, 
such  as  hot  and  cold,  bitter  and  sweet,  moist  and  dry.  and  the  like.  And  my  ances- 
tor, Asdepius,  knowing  how  to  implant  friendship  and  accord  in  these  elements,  was 
the  creator  of  our  art.  .  .  .  The  course  of  the  seasons  is  also  full  of  both  these  prin- 
ciples [good  and  evil  love];  and  when,  as  I  was  saying,  the  elements  of  hot  and  cold, 
moist  and  dry,  attain  the  harmonious  love  of  one  another  and  blend  hi  temperance 
and  harmony,  they  bring  to  men,  animals,  and  plants  health  and  plenty,  and  do 
them  no  harm;  whereas  the  wanton  love,  getting  the  upper  hand  and  affecting  the 
seasons  of  the  year,  is  very  destructive  and  injurious,  being  the  source  of  pestilence, 
and  bringing  many  other  kinds  of  diseases  on  animals  and  plants;  for  hoar-frost  and 
hail  and  blight  spring  from  the  excesses  and  disorders  of  these  elements  of  love, 
which  to  know  in  relation  to  the  revolutions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  seasons 
of  the  year  is  termed  astronomy  "  (ibid.,  i,  556-558). 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  91 

Love  alone.  Water  does  not  extinguish  fire  because  it  hates  fire, 
but  because  it  loves  itself  to  such  a  degree  that  it  wishes  to  make 
the  fire  like  itself  by  imparting  to  it  some  of  its  own  "  natural 
coldness."  A  house  does  not  fall  with  a  crash  upon  the  head  of  its 
occupant  because  it  hates  the  occupant,  but  because  it  loves 
itself,  and  seeks  the  center  of  the  earth,  its  proper  abode.  The 
wolf  does  not  devour  the  lamb,  and  the  dog  does  not  bite  the  thief 
because  they  hate  the  unfortunate  creatures  that  fall  under  their 
teeth,  but  because  the  wolf  loves  his  stomach  and  the  dog  his 
master. 
Love  is  the  inventor  of  the  arts  and  sciences: 

Amour,  qui  est  par  tout  le  monde  espars, 
A  invente  les  sciences  et  artz, 
Et  les  maintient  en  tres  belle  ordonnance, 
Les  esclarsit,  les  produit,  les  avance. 
Car  qui  pourroit  aprendre  ou  inventer 
Art,  si  Pamour  ne  1'y  vient  inciter  ? 
Sans  forte  amour  et  delectation, 
Nul  ne  viendroit  a  quelque  invention. 

Kings,  princes,  and  even  the  god  Mars  must  bow  to  Love: 

Amour  est  noble  et  plus  fort  que  les  roys: 
Les  princes  grans  avec  tous  leurs  arroys 
Sont  tous  contrainctz  soubz  luy  leur  chef  baisser, 
Et  hault  et  cler  son  povoir  confesser  .  .  . 
Mais  que  peult  on  dire,  ny  exprimer 
Plus  impossible,  incroyable  en  tout  lieu 
Qu'un  jeune  enfant  vaincre  le  plus  fort  dieu, 
C'est  le  dieu  Mars. 

Love,  observes  the  "  loyal  merchant,"  cannot  be  bought  with 
gold  or  silver  or  won  by  violence.  Love  alone  is  satisfied  with 
itself,  and  asks  as  a  reward  only  love  in  return : 

On  a  beau  faire,  oncques  on  ne  1'efforce: 
Point  n'est  vaincu  par  argent  ny  par  force: 
Car  il  est  ne  en  libre  volunte, 
Precede  et  vient  de  cueur  et  de  bonte. 
Certainement  menasses,  violances, 
Or,  ny  argent,  cruaultez  et  vengences, 
Roys  ne  tyrans  ne  nous  contraignent  point 


92  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Que  les  aymions,  voire  d'un  tout  seul  poinct. 

Communiment  toute  aultre  affection, 

Tout  art  humain,  toute  operation 

Par  dessus  soy  requiert  quelque  salaire : 

Le  seul  amour  est  tousjours  au  contraire: 

Le  seul  amour  se  contente  de  soy. 

Car  que  requiert  (telle  est  d'amour  la  loy) 

Celuy  qui  ayme  en  cil  qui  est  ayme, 

Si  non  1'amour  reciprocque  exprim6, 

Et  devers  luy  faisant  le  sien  retour  ? 

Car  (comme  on  dit)  amour  demande  amour.1 

The  "  loyal  merchant  "  closes  his  lesson  by  exhorting  his  daugh- 
ters to  follow  and  worship  Love,  the  procreator  and  preserver  of 
all  things,  the  sole  cause  of  noble  deeds  and  good  conduct: 

Et  puys  qu'il  est  si  noble  et  debonnaire 

Qu'il  faict  tout  bien  de  grace  voluntaire: 

Puis  que  le  monde  en  bon  estat  conserve, 

Aymer  le  fault  d'amour  libre  et  non  serve, 

Et  comme  pere,  estant  de  tout  autheur, 

Pareillement  aussi  conservateur: 

Puis  qu'il  produit  tout  art  qu'on  peult  congnoistre, 

Suyvre  le  fault  comme  seigneur  et  maistre, 

Par  quel  autheur  sommes  creez  et  nez: 

Par  quel  seigneur  nous  sommes  gouvernez: 

Et  par  quel  maistre  a  bien  faire  et  bien  vivre 

Sommes  instruictz,  si  le  voulons  ensuyvre.2 

1  In  the  Phaedrus,  Plato  says  that  true  love  is  always  shared  by  the  loved  one. 

*  For  the  substance  of  this  and  the  foregoing  quotations,  cf.  Symposium,  Aga- 
thon's  speech :  ".  .  .  of  all  the  blessed  gods  he  is  the  most  blessed  because  he  is  the 
fairest  and  best.  .  .  .  For  all  men  in  all  things  serve  him  of  their  own  free  will.  .  .  . 
Who  will  deny  that  the  creation  of  the  animals  is  his  doing  ?  Are  they  not  all  the 
works  of  his  wisdom,  born  and  begotten  of  him  ?  And  as  to  the  artists,  do  we  not 
know  that  he  only  of  them  whom  Love  inspires  has  the  light  of  fame  ?  .  .  .  The 
arts  of  medicine  and  archery  and  divination  were  discovered  by  Apollo,  under  the 
guidance  of  love  and  desire;  so  that  he  too  is  a  disciple  of  Love.  Also  the  melody  of 
the  Muses,  the  metallurgy  of  Hephaestus,  the  weaving  of  Athene  the  empire  of 
Zeus  over  gods  and  men,  are  all  due  to  Love,  who  was  the  inventor  of  them  .  .  . 
From  the  love  of  the  beautiful  has  sprung  every  good  in  heaven  and  earth  .  .  . 
as  to  courage,  even  the  God  of  War  is  no  match  for  him.  .  .  And  if  he  conquers  the 
bravest  of  all  others,  he  must  be  himself  the  bravest  ...  In  whose  footsteps  let 
every  man  follow,  sweetly  singing  in  his  honour  and  joining  in  that  sweet  strain  with 
which  Love  charms  the  souls  of  gods  and  men  "  (Jowett,  i.  565-567). 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  93 

The  Contr'amye  treasured  her  father's  golden  words,  and  put 
them  into  practice.  When  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  old,  as  a 
result  of  her  fealty  to  Love,  she  was  so  virtuous  and  so  beautiful 
that  every  man  and  woman  in  the  city  sought  her  acquaintance 
and  friendship.  Never,  says  she,  could  such  a  result  have  been 
achieved  through  the  artifices  employed  by  maidens  who  prize 
not  modesty,  and  who  seek  to  attract  attention  by  a  brazen  dis- 
play of  costly  raiment,  precious  jewels,  and  painted  cheeks.  It  is 
absurd  to  deck  oneself  in  borrowed  plumage,  adds  the  Contr'- 
amye, when  the  god  of  love  himself  is  contented  with  a  most 
scanty  attire  to  set  off  his  youth  and  beauty.  Some  women 
seem  to  mistake  Cupid  for  the  god  of  horsetraders : 

Dessus  ce  point  ne  puis  que  ne  me  rie, 

Qu'on  le  fait  dieu  de  macquignonnerie: 

On  se  poupine,  on  se  mire,  et  regarde, 

On  se  polit,  on  se  frotte,  et  se  farde, 

Comme  un  cheval  qui  passe  par  les  mains 

Des  macquignons  d'avarice  tant  plains 

Que,  pour  avoir  d'argent  somme  plus  grosse, 

Pour  ung  rossin  vous  vendront  une  rosse, 

Tant  ilz  1'auront  bien  faicte  et  bien  menee 

Tant  bien  polie  et  bien  macquignonnee. 

Ainsi  est  il,  O  mes  dames,  souvent 

A  grand  regret  je  voy  que  Ton  se  vend, 

Et  Ton  se  pace  au  plus  offrant,  et  puis 

D 'amour,  dit  on,  telz  sont  les  faictz,  les  fruictz. 

The  cupidity  of  women  distresses  the  Contr'amye.  In  olden 
times  the  acquisition  of  wealth  was  not  the  only  ami  of  woman, 

Mais  aujourd'huy  on  ne  quiert  que  richesses 

Et  d'edifice  et  d'habitz  les  haultesses, 

Et  follement  au  plus  riche  donneur 

On  vend  son  corps,  son  ame,  et  son  honneur.1 

The  direct  replies  given  by  the  Contr'amye  to  La  Borderie's 
Amie  de  Court  are  the  least  interesting  portions  of  her  discourse. 

1  The  theme  of  Papillon's  Vicloire  et  triumphe  d' Argent.  —  Concerning  the  "  dis- 
honor in  being  overcome  by  the  love  of  money,  or  of  wealth,"  see  Symposium 
(Jowett,  i,  554). 


94  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

What  can  she  say  by  way  of  refutation  except  that  the  Amie  de 
Court  is  shameless,  dishonorable,  avaricious,  deceitful,  cruel,  and 
mendacious  ?  These  accusations  she  repeats  over  and  over 
again,  first  in  one  form  and  then  in  another,  with  the  result  that 
the  poem  becomes  tedious  and  monotonous.1  Among  these 
repetitions  there  are,  however,  a  few  noteworthy  passages.  In  an 
effort  to  paint  the  Amie  de  Court  as  black  as  possible,  the  Contr'- 
amye  makes  use  of  the  following  Platonic  argument.2  The  heart, 
the  life-giving  organ,  sends  throughout  the  body  in  the  blood  the 
"  vital  spirit,"  which  finds  an  outlet  only  through  the  eyes,  "  of 
the  body  guides  and  masters."  The  effect  of  a  maiden's  glance, 
reenforced  by  the  vital  spirit,  is  not  unlike  that  produced  by  the 
gaze  of  the  basilisk,  for  when  she  turns  her  amorous  look  upon  a 

1  To  some  of  the  Amie  de  Court's  statements  the  Contr'amye  replies  thus: 
Accept  gifts,  despoil  your  lovers;  your  youth  will  soon  pass,  your  beauty  will  soon 
fade,  and  then  your  lovers  will  shun  you.  You  accept  gifts.  I  do  not. 

Amour  est  nud,  et  de  soy  se  contente. 
Aussi  je  croy  que  dame  a  prendre  aprise 
Facilement  en  prenant  se  rend  prise. 

You  say  honor  and  virtue  guide  you.  This  applies  to  me  rather  than  to  you.  You 
wish  to  be  worshipped  by  a  multitude  of  serfs,  and  to  love  no  one.  If,  as  you  say, 
"  tu  te  vas  contentant  de  toy  mesme," 

Quel  besoing  done  as  tu  de  t'appuyer 
Sur  tant  d'amys  pour  te  dfeennuyer  ? 

You  invoke  certain  gods,  for  example  Juno  and  Hymen.    So  why  not  invoke  Love  ? 

Car  sans  1' Amour  et  sa  grand  deite 
Juno,  Hymen  perdroient  leur  (lignite. 

The  Contr'amye  also  takes  the  Amie  de  Court  to  task  for  preferring  a  rich  fool  to 
a  poor  man  of  intelligence : 

Le  sot  espouz  en  fin  t'abysmera: 
L'espoux  scavant  en  fin  t'eslevera. 

She  praises  poverty  and  disparages  riches  and  avarice.  Concerning  poverty,  she 
says: 

Tu  dis  que  c'est  chose  fort  miserable: 
Bien,  mais  que  soil  un  mal  tout  incurable, 
Je  te  le  nie,  et  sans  dispute  obscure, 
Dix  mille  escuz  en  feront  tost  la  cure. 

*  Phaedrus  (Jowett,  i,  457.)  Cf.  Castiglione,  //  Cortegiano,  lib.  rv,  cap.  btv- 
Ixvi.  Castiglione,  however,  represents  the  woman's  glance  as  beneficial.  V.  Cian 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  this  passage  Castiglione  bases  himself  on  Ficino's 
In  Comrivium  Platonis  Commentarium. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  95 

susceptible  youth  he  is  seen  to  grow  cold,  languish,  and  even 
expire.  Hence,  the  maiden  who  indulges  in  coquetry  is  nothing 
less  than  a  thief,  a  murderess,  a  sacrilegious  demon: 

Qui  ayme  aultruy,  ou  qui  monstre  semblant, 

II  va  son  sang  par  les  traictz  d'oeil  troublant: 

Car  tout  ainsi  que  le  soleil,  qui  est 

Le  cueur  du  monde,  et  qui  meult  sans  arrest, 

En  ce  mouvant  eschauffe  et  illumine 

Avec  ses  rays  du  monde  la  machine, 

Y  espandant  sa  vigueur  et  vertu : 

De  nostre  corps  ainsi  le  cueur  batu 

Par  mouvement,  lequel  jamais  ne  cesse, 

Le  sang  prochain  nous  eschauffe  sans  cesse, 

Et  par  ce  sang  Pesprit  vital  envoye 

Par  tout  le  corps:  mais  il  trouve  sa  voye 

Facilement  par  les  vitres  des  yeulx, 

Car  luy  subtil  par  la  passe  trop  mieulx: 

Pource  que  1'oeil,  membre  noble  et  gentil, 

Par  sus  tout  autre  appert  cler  et  subtil. 

Par  les  yeulx  done,  du.  corps  guydes  et  maistres, 

L'esprit  vital,  comme  par  deux  fenestres, 

Passe  tousjours,  et  plus  facilement, 

Sans  doubte  aucun,  et  plus  abondamment  .  .  . 

L'esprit  vital,  vray  siege  et  char  de  I'ame, 

Les  yeulx  d'autruy  par  les  nostres  enflame, 

Les  navre  et  tue,  et  puys  apres  le  cueur. 

Car  par  les  yeulx  ceste  vive  liqueur, 

Vivement  traicte  ardente  et  bien  subtile, 

Descend  au  cueur  fort  legiere  et  habile, 

Et  luy  ravit  sa  chaleur  et  sa  vie. 

Car,  n'ayant  point  d'habiter  la  envie, 

Incontinent  se  retire  chez  soy, 

Pillant  1'autruy  par  force  et  faulse  loy, 

Et  emportant  son  sang  et  sa  vigueur 

Le  laisse  mort,  ou  en  grande  langueur. 

Et  de  la  vient  que  telz  amans  navrez 

Sont  tost  de  sens  et  d'esprit  esguarez: 

Tremblent  de  froit,  car  la  vifve  scintille 

Entrant  sur  eulx,  toute  leur  chaleur  pille: 

Sont  tous  pasmez,  craintifz,  espoventez, 

Car  la  froideur  cause  timiditez. 

A  tous  propos  jectent  souspirs  extremes, 

Sentent  tres  bien  qu'ilz  se  perdent  eulx  mesmes. 

La  dame,  done,  qui  son  reil  esvertue 


g6  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Sur  le  jeune  homme,  en  trahyson  le  tue: 
Par  ainsi  est  homicide  et  meurdriere: 
»         Mais  larronnesse  et  sacrilege  arriere. 

The  Contr'amye  supports  her  arguments  with  examples  of  true 
lovers,  heroes,  and  heroines  of  antiquity:  Hector,  Lycurgus, 
Alexander,  Cato,  Julia,  Cornelia,  and  others.1  These  noble  souls, 
she  remarks,  did  not  value  "  gold  and  silver,  instrument  of  all 
evils,"  more  highly  than  honor  and  virtue.  In  her  effort  to 
emulate  these  upright  personages,  she  intends  to  lead  a  virtuous 
life  with  the  young  man  she  has  chosen  as  her  husband: 

Autruy  n'ay  pris,  et  autruy  ne  m'a  prise, 
Si  non  un  seul  jeune  homme  de  hault  pris, 
Que  pour  mary  et  pour  amy  j'ay  pris. 
Et  me  voyant  fort  humble  tant  m'ayma 
Que  pour  amye  et  femme  prise  m'a. 
Je  n'allois  point  haultaine  et  glorieuse, 
Je  n'allois  point  en  habitz  precieuse: 
Mais  bien  j'allois  ornee  en  ma  jeunesse 
De  purite,  de  vertu,  et  simplesse, 
Qui  m'ont  tant  fait  par  ville  renommer 
Qu'on  m'a  voulu  Vraye  Amye  nommer. 

The  Contr'amye  praises  love  as  the  cause  of  good  conduct  and 
noble  deeds: 

Amour  plein  d'heur  est  tant  parfaict  et  hault 
Que  plus  que  loix  et  que  les  artz  il  vault. 
Les  artz  escriptz,  dix  milh'ons  de  loix 
N'ont  la  vertu,  1'emcace  et  le  poix 
Pour  exciter  a  bien  faire  et  bien  vivre 
Comme  1'Amour,  quiconque  le  veult  suyvre. 

1  The  references  in  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  one  of  Fontaine's  earliest  works,  to 
mythology  and  ancient  history  are  worthy  of  attention.  The  complete  list  of  the 
persons  referred  to  is  as  follows:  Jupiter,  Mars,  Saturn,  Apollo,  Daphne,  Phaon, 
Sappho,  Paris,  Oenone,  Aeneas,  Dido,  Jason,  Hypsipyle,  Ulysses,  Penelope,  Hector, 
Andromache,  Orpheus,  Eurydice,  Admetus,  Alcestis,  Hercules,  Theseus,  Eriphyle, 
Polydorus,  Laomedon,  Homer,  Socrates,  Xenophon,  Phocion,  Alexander,  Lysander, 
Lycurgus,  Solon,  Crates,  Bias,  Cyrus,  Croesus,  Lucretia,  Horace,  Tiberius,  Augus- 
tus, Curtius,  the  Gracchi,  Cato,  Fabricius,  Julia,  and  Cornelia.  From  Horace's 
Epistles  (i,  10),  or  from  some  other  source,  Fontaine  reproduces  the  fable  of  the 
horse  and  the  stag.  From  Ovid's  Amores  (iii,  8),  he  gives  the  account  of  the 
"  temps  du  viel  Saturne."  Some  of  the  names  cited  above  show  that  he  was  also 
influenced  by  Ovid's  Heroides,  of  which  he  published  a  translation  later. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  97 

In  vain  do  judges  and  executioners  strive  to  rid  the  world  of 
sin  and  crime,  whereas 

Le  seul  Amour  tout  parfaict  et  constant 

Vous  faict  cela  quasi  en  un  instant. 

Car  aussi  tost  qu'il  a  gaine  les  cueurs, 

II  meet  a  mort  envies  et  rancueurs. 

Si  tost  qu'il  est  en  ung  cueur  arreste, 

II  chasse  hors  villaine  oysivete, 

De  mille  maulx  la  nourrice  et  la  mere. 

II  chasse  hors  mal  heur  et  vitupere, 

II  chasse  hors  larrecin,  convoitise, 

Fureur,  erreur,  faulsete  et  faintise: 

Et  en  leur  lieu  y  met  grace,  sagesse, 

Doulceur,  bon  heur,  conseil,  force  et  prouesse. 

II  est  tant  fort  qu'il  faict  plus  que  les  armes, 

Plus  que  tous  preux  en  guerres  et  alarmes. 

Qui  ne  congnoist  sa  force  et  sa  Constance  ? 

Qui  osera  luy  faire  resistance  ? 

Qui  ne  congnoist,  et  qui  n'a  entendu 

Qu'il  a  maint  cueur  magnanime  rendu  ?  l 

As  a  parting  thrust  at  the  Amie  de  Court,  the  Contr'amye  im- 
plores the  god  of  love  to  inflict  upon  the  recalcitrant  maiden  the 
most  terrible  of  punishments,  unrequited  love: 

O  dieu  Amour,  ceste  imparfaicte  amye, 
Qui  est  de  toy  si  parfaicte  ennemye,2 
Sente  le  traict  dore,  qui  feit  amy 
Apollo  fier,  jadis  ton  ennemy:  .  .  . 
A  celle  fin  que  contre  Amour  armee, 
Ayme  tousjours  sans  qu'elle  soit  aymee. 

Before  concluding  the  summary  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  it 
is  necessary  to  cite  the  following  passage,  which  deals  with  what 
Heroet  calls  "  parfection  d'amour,"  that  is,  the  presence  of  the 

1  These  ideas  are  inspired  by  Phaedrus's  speech  in  the  Symposium  (Jowett,  i, 
548-550),  which  ends:  "  These  are  my  reasons  for  affirming  that  Love  is  the  eldest 
and  noblest  and  mightiest  of  the  gods,  and  the  chiefest  author  and  giver  of  virtue  in 
life,  and  of  happiness  after  death."     As  examples  of  hearts  "  rendered  magnani- 
mous "  by  love  Plato  cites  Alcestis,  Orpheus,  and  Achilles;  Fontaine  cites  Alcestis, 
Orpheus,  Hercules,  and  Curtius. 

2  Cf .  M.  Gohin  (p.  xxviii) :  "  Peut-etre  Pinvocation  finale  de  son  poeme  [Fon- 
taine's Contr'amye]  a-t-elle  fourni  a  He'roet  le  titre  m£me  de  la  Parfaicte  Amye." 


g8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

good,  the  virtuous,  and  the  beautiful  as  essential  elements  of  true 

love: 

Qu'amour  soit  beau,  qui  est  ce  qui  en  double  ? 

Mais  qu'il  soit  bon,  je  le  prouve  sans  doubte. 

Certainement  je  dy  que  tout  ainsi 

Que  ce  qui  est  meschant  est  laid  aussi: 

Ce  qui  est  bon  est  beau  pareillement: 

Ce  qui  est  beau  ne  peult  aucunement 

Qu'il  ne  consiste  en  parfaict  et  bel  ordre, 

Ou  n'y  a  rien  que  reprendre  et  que  mordre: 

L'ordre  parfaict  gist  en  Squalite", 

Proportion,  grace,  honneur,  dignite": 

Proportion  gist  en  la  convenance, 

En  un  accord  et  une  temperance: 

Et  temperance  ou  modestie  gist 

En  la  vertu  qui  la  beaulte  regist : 

Ainsi  amour  ne  peult  estre  qu'onneste, 

Beau,  sage,  bon,  gracieux,  et  modeste: 

Car  si  beault6  gist  en  perfection, 

Et  1'amour  est  une  fruition 

De  la  beaulte:  fault  conclure  en  effect 

Qu'amour  aussi  doibt  estre  bien  parfaict.1 

This  synopsis  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  suffices  to  show  the 
influence  exerted  upon  Fontaine  by  the  Symposium.2  Eryxima- 
chus's  universal  love,  which  "  may  be  summed  up  as  the  harmony 
of  man  with  himself  in  soul  as  well  as  body,  and  of  all  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  with  one  another,"  3  forms,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  a  great  part  of  the  lesson  on  love  given  by  the  "  loyal  mer- 
chant "  to  his  daughters.  Not  only  is  the  general  thought  of 
Eryximachus's  speech  adopted  by  Fontaine,  but  even  some  of  the 
specific  illustrations:  for  instance,  hot  and  cold  in  the  human  body 
as  preventives  of  sickness  and  death;  and  harmony  among  the 
heavenly  bodies,  the  elements,  and  the  animals  of  the  earth. 

The  borrowings  from  Agathon's  discourse  are  quite  as  striking. 
Most  of  the  attributes  ascribed  by  Fontaine  to  the  god  of  love 

1  In  these  lines  Fontaine  is  clearly  trying  to  recapitulate  some  of  the  principal 
ideas  of  the  beginning  of  Socrates's  speech  in  the  Symposium  (Socrates's  interroga- 
tion of  Agathon,  and  Diotima's  interrogation  of  Socrates).  Cf.  Jowett,  i,  569  ff. 

1  And  in  one  or  two  instances  by  the  Phaedrus. 

1  Jowett,  i,  530. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  99 

are  those  ascribed  to  him  by  Agathon;  for  example,  beauty  and 
courage,  omnipotence  as  the  creator  and  preserver  of  all  things, 
far-reaching  influence  as  "  the  fairest  and  best  "  of  the  gods,  "  and 
the  cause  of  what  is  fairest  and  best  in  others." 

From  Phaedrus's  speech  is  derived  the  idea  that  love  causes 
good  conduct  and  noble  deeds;  from  Pausanias's  speech  the  idea 
that  it  is  dishonorable  to  love  for  the  sake  of  money;  from  Pau- 
sanias's speech,  too,  the  general  distinction  between  a  fair  and  a 
foul  love,  the  underlying  thought  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court. 

Fontaine  was  well  aware  that  the  first  five  speeches  of  the 
Symposium  "  are  all  designed  to  prepare  the  way  for  Socrates, 
who  gathers  up  the  threads  anew,  and  skims  the  highest  points  of 
each  of  them,"  1  and  that,  as  Socrates's  speech  is,  as  it  were,  a 
summing  up  of  the  leading  points  of  the  others,  its  importance  is 
the  greatest.  So  he  introduced  the  doctrine  set  forth  by  Soc- 
rates that  love,  as  the  lover  of  the  beautiful,  which  is  the  good,  is 
the  only  safe  guide  to  happiness. 

But  it  may  be  said  that,  although  Fontaine  derived  many  of  his 
ideas  from  the  Symposium,  he  omitted  one  of  the  crowning  ideas 
of  that  remarkable  work,  an  idea  that  formed  the  very  foundation 
of  the  Platonism  of  the  Renaissance,  —  namely,  the  conception 
that  the  love  of  earthly  beauty  elevates  man's  mind  to  a  contem- 
plation of  "  the  divine  beauty  pure  and  clear  and  unalloyed,  not 
clogged  with  the  pollutions  of  mortality  and  all  the  colours  and 
vanities  of  human  life."  2  Such  an  objection  would  be  a  most 
valid  one.  In  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  Fontaine  did  not  go 
beyond  a  pleasing  conception  of  what  terrestrial  love  should  be, 
—  a  disinterested  longing  for  the  good  and  the  virtuous.3  Im- 

1  Jowett,  i,  526.  2  Symposium  (Jowett,  i,  582). 

3  In  a  dizain  inscribed  A  Damoiselle  Catherine  Morelet,  fille  de  Monsieur  de  la 
Mar  chef erriere,  Fontaine  says: 

Belle,  tu  peux  voir  hardiment 

Mon  livret  de  la  Contr'amie, 

Car  elle  loue  honnestement 

La  bonne  amour,  blasmant  1'amie 

Trop  enchantee  et  endormie 

Auz  honneurs  et  biens  de  ce  monde. 

(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  95). 


100  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

portant  document  though  it  is  for  the  study  of  the  intellectual 
development  of  Fontaine  and  his  time,  the  Contr'amye  de  Court 
does  not  contain  the  essence  of  Plato's  theories  on  love.  If  it  is  to 
be  proved  that  Fontaine  was  one  of  the  most  thorough  Platonists 
of  the  early  French  Renaissance,  the  proof  must  be  sought  outside 
the  Contr'amye  de  Court.  In  the  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine l  there  is  a 
poem,  £pitre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour:  a  une  dame,  which 
furnishes  the  required  proof. 

The  epistle  on  good  love  is  addressed  to  a  lady  with  whom 
Fontaine  was  rather  intimate.  He  tries  to  give  her  a  definition  of 
love  as  he  understands  it,  he  who  has  ever  been  compelled  to  love 
by  the  Fates  themselves.  His  love,  however,  is  not  the  kind  that 
appeals  to  ordinary  men,  carnal  love  or  silly  infatuation  for  a 
pretty  face  or  a  trim  figure,  beauty  that  fades  and  withers  with 
age.  Virtue  in  man  and  woman  has  been  the  object  of  his  quest, 
goodness  that  death  cannot  destroy,  that  lives  on  eternally: 

J'ay  poursuivy  tousjours  1'amour  honneste, 
Comme  raison  par  honneur  m'admoneste: 
Je  n'ay  jamais  ayme  sinon  pour  bien: 
Par  cet  escrit  (dame)  Pentendrez  bien. 
Que  si  1'amour  est  chose  en  moy  fatale,2 

1  P.  13.  —  The  epistle  on  good  love  was  probably  written  about  the  same  time 
as  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  that  is,  during  the  period  when  Fontaine  was  most 
deeply  engrossed  with  the  question  of  love;  and  so  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  supple- 
ment to  the  Contr'amye.  The  fact  that  the  epistle  was  not  published  until  1555  does 
not  mean  that  it  may  not  have  been  written  many  years  earlier.  The  Ruisseaux 
contains  a  number  of  poems  composed  as  early  as  1540,  among  others,  Fontaine's 
correspondence  with  his  uncle,  Jean  Dugu6  (about  1535),  the  salutation  addressed 
by  Fontaine  to  Ren6e  de  France  upon  his  arrival  at  Ferrara,  and  a  Dieu  gard  a  la 
ville  de  Lyon,faict  Van  1540.  The  fipttre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour,  grouped 
by  Fontaine  with  several  of  these  early  poems,  is  an  epitome  of  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal ideas  advanced  by  Bembo  in  his  discourse  on  love  in  the  fourth  book  of  Cas- 
tiglione's  Cortegiano  (chapters  li-lxxiii).  As  Cian  (II  Cortegiano,  Florence,  1894, 
p.  407,  note  i)  and  others  have  pointed  out,  Bembo's  discourse  in  the  Cortegiano 
is  derived  mainly  from  Plato's  Symposium  and  Phaedrus,  Ficino's  commentaries  on 
Plato,  Francesco  Cattani  da  Diacceto's  Tre  libri  d'Amore,  and  Bembo's  Asolani. 
The  origins  of  Bembo's  discourse  account  for  the  mingling  of  Platonism  and  Neo- 
Platonism  in  Fontaine's  JLpttre.  In  the  Fontaine  d' amour  (1545),  Fontaine  was,  as 
we  shall  see,  anything  but  a  Platonist. 

*  Cf.  Bembo  in  the  Cortegiano,  lib.  iv,  cap.  Ixi. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  101 

Ce  n'est  1'amour  charnelle  ne  brutale,1 
Ce  n'est  1'amour  de  beaute  qui  empire, 
Et  qui  tousjours  a  sa  vieillesse  tire: 
Ce  n'est  1'amour  qui  donne  passion 
Pour  les  beaux  traitz  ou  la  proportion: 
Ce  n'est  1'amour  ou  de  corps  ou  de  face: 
Ce  n'est  1'amour  qui  avec  temps  s'efface: 
Mais  c'est  1'amour  qui  de  bonne  nature 
En  vertu  croist  et  prend  sa  nourriture, 
Et  qui  mourroit,  certes,  et  cesseroit 
Quand  la  vertu  subjette  a  mort  seroit: 
Mais  la  vertu  comme  elle  est  immortelle, 
Confesser  fault  que  son  amour  est  telle. 

These  prefatory  remarks  lead  Fontaine  to  a  definition  of  the 
love  of  the  virtuous  which  has  been  his  sole  preoccupation.  Love 
is  a  passion  which  seeks  enjoyment  from  beauty.  Beauty  is  a 
clear  and  pure  ray  of  the  divine  essence  communicated  by  the 
grace  of  God  to  the  human  soul  and  to  angels.  But  the  partition 
of  this  divine  ray  between  men  and  angels  is  not  equal.  The 
angel  being  free  from  a  mortal  body,  the  clog  that  weighs  down 
man,  turns  its  gaze  within  its  own  breast,  contemplates  there  the 
reflected  image  of  the  Creator,  and  wrapped  in  this  ecstatic 
vision,  admires  the  divine  essence,  and  becomes  one  with  it.  The 
divine  splendor,  the  object  of  the  angel's  contemplation,  is 
beauty;  the  angel's  admiration  of  the  reflected  divinity  within  its 
own  breast  and  the  subsequent  coalescence  of  the  angelic  nature 
with  the  image  of  God  are  love.  Would  that  the  immortal  soul  of 
man,  freed  from  the  mortal  body,  might  contemplate  the  face  of 
the  Almighty  and  embrace  Him  in  an  ecstasy  of  love ! 

Premierement  fault  veoir  que  c'est  qu 'amour: 
Comme  1'entens  le  diray  sans  sejour. 
Amour,  amye,  est  une  passion 
Qui  de  beaute  quiert  la  fruition: 2 
Et  beaute  est  un  rayon  cler  et  digne, 
Une  splendeur  de  1'essence  divine,3 

1  Concerning  carnal  love,  see  Corlegiano,  lib.  rv,  cap.  Hi. 

2  Cf.  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  li:  "  Amor  non  e  altro  che  un  certo  desiderio  di  fruir  la 
bellezza."    Cf.  Conlr'amye  de  Court,  p.  98,  above. 

3  Cf.  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  capp.  lii,  Ixii. 


102  MAISTRfi  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Que  Dieu  voulut  a  nostre  ame 1  et  a  1'ange  * 
Communiquer,  dont  luy  devons  louange: 
En  tous  ces  deux,  comme  en  double  miroir, 
Dieu  faict  sa  gloire  et  lumiere  apparoir: 
En  tous  ces  deux  (di  je),  ce  nfiantmoins 
Entendre  fault  en  1'un  plus,  1'autre  moins: 
Car  1'esprit  d'ange  empesche  nullement 
Du  corps  mortel,  qui  donne  empeschement,* 
Se  rSfleschit  en  soymesme  et  contemple 
Dedans  son  sein,  comme  en  un  divin  temple, 
De  Dieu  1'image,  en  contemplant  s'y  mire: 
En  s'y  mirant  luy  adhere  et  1'admire.4 
Telle  splendeur  de  la  divinite, 
En  cet  endroit  nous  1'appellons  beaute: 
Et  telle  ardeur  de  1'ange  y  adherant, 
Nous  1'appellons  amour.    0  corps  mourant, 
O  pleust  a  Dieu  que  nostre  ame  jamais, 
Ne  tant,  par  toy  fust  empeschee!  mais 
Peust  contempler  en  soy  de  Dieu  la  face, 
Et  1'ambrasser  par  amour  et  par  grace 
Perfaictement,  et  qu'en  ce  peust  ensuyvre 
L'ange  divin,  qui  est  de  corps  delivre. 

The  beauty  of  mortal  man  and  woman  is  not  a  transitory  thing, 
doomed  to  fade  and  vanish;  it  has  a  loftier,  a  more  sublime  con- 
notation. It  is  a  reflection  of  heavenly  beauty,  placed  on  earth  to 
uplift  man's  mind  to  a  contemplation  of  the  true,  absolute  beauty 
of  the  celestial  abode,  of  which  we  catch  a  glimpse  in  the  sky,  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  the  myriads  of  stars: 

Ainsi  beaut£  n'est  chose  corporelle, 
Pareillement  n'est  chose  temporelle. 
Mais  la  beaute,  qu'on  dit  commun6ment 
Beaute  de  corps,5  dont  le  lineament, 
La  quantit6,  couleur,  proportion 

1  Cf.  Cortegiano,  lib.  rv,  cap.  lix. 

1  Cf.  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  Ixviii.  Cf.  Clan's  note,  ibid.,  p.  428:  "  Naturalmente 
Platone  non  parlo  n6  di  bellezza  angelica,  n€,  in  modo  esplicito  di  Dio;  e  queste 
espressioni  e  quest!  concetti  1'Autore  [Castiglione]  li  attingeva  dai  neo-platonici, 
specie  dal  Ficino,  che  piti  d'ogni  altro  s'era  spinto  innanzi  nella  trasfonnazione  cris- 
tiana  del  platonismo." 

1  Concerning  the  body  as  the  clog  of  the  soul,  see  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  liii. 

*  Cf.  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  Ixviii.  5  Cf.  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  Iviii. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  103 

Tire  nostre  ceil  en  admiration, 

Ce  n'est  sinon  qu'ombre  declarative 

De  la  beaute  eternelle  et  naive: 

Et  ce  n'en  est  qu'une  image  ou  peinture, 

Pour  parvenir  (comme  dit  1'escriture) 

Au  hault  degre  des  choses  invisibles, 

Qui  tousjours  sont  belles  et  impassibles: l 

La  grand'  beaute  desquelles  et  la  gloire 

Le  ciel  racompte  et  nous  la  fait  notoire, 

Comme  aussi  font  la  lune  et  le  souleil, 

Et  tout  cela  qu'au  ciel  voyons  a  1'ceil.2 

Fontaine  develops  further  his  conception  of  earthly  beauty  by 
applying  it  to  his  own  experience.  The  sight  of  beauty  in  man  or 
woman  pleases  him  because  the  beautiful  human  body  is  the 
depository  of  the  divine  image  which  he  desires  to  love  for  its 
infinite  perfection.  He  tarries  little  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
physical  charms  of  those  about  him,  —  he  is  seeking  something 
higher  and  nobler,  seeking  to  learn  whether  the  charming  body 
hides  the  untarnished  image  of  divinity.  If  the  deeds,  the  con- 
versation, the  thoughts  of  the  human  creature  indicate  that  the 
divine  spark  is  wanting,  he  turns  his  love  in  another  direction: 

Si  done  je  trouve  ou  homme  ou  femme  belle, 

En  la  beaute  que  Ton  dit  corporelle, 

Cela  me  plaist,  comme  un  indice  et  signe 

Que  la  dedans  est  1'image  divine, 

Que  veux  aymer  pour  sa  grande  beaute, 

Perfection,  infinie  clarte. 

Parquoy  ne  veux  m'arrester  au  dehors, 

Ny  seulement  considerer  le  corps: 

Mais  procedant  plus  oultre,  veux  congnoistre 

Si  au  dedans  1'image  qui  doit  estre 

Saine  et  entiere,  et  la  beaute  naive 

Du  tresparfaict  y  est  point  morte  ou  vive. 

Et  si  aux  faictz,  aux  dictz,  a  la  pensee, 

La  viens  trouver  la  dedans  effacee, 

Incontinent  de  la  je  me  retire, 

1  Cf.  Cortegiano,  lib.  iv,  cap.  Ixvii. 

2  Concerning  the  beauty  of  the  heavens  and  the  "  heavenly  lights,"  see  ibid., 
lib.  rv,  cap.  Iviii.    Concerning  divine  beauty,  "  the  source  of  every  other  beauty, 
which  never  waxes  or  wanes,"  see  ibid.,  lib.  iv,  cap.  Ixix. 


104  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Et  mon  amour  en  une  autre  part  tire, 
Disant  ainsi:  ce  corps  est  s6ducteur, 
Ce  corps  est  fainct,  ce  corps  est  un  menteur: 
Car  de  beaut6  a  le  signe  et  indice, 
Mais  la  dedans  la  corrompt  par  son  vice. 
Ce  corps  menteur,  sans  effect,  a  le  signe 
De  la  beautS  dont  il  se  rend  indigne.1 
Or  je  ne  veux  la  seule  ombre  poursuyvre, 
Et  Narcissus  en  ce  je  ne  veux  suyvre: 
Car  comme  luy  en  fin  trompe  serois, 
Quand  trop  en  vain  1'ombre  j'embrasserois 
Pour  le  vray  corps  de  la  beaute  extreme, 
Qui  est  de  Dieu  1'image,  mais  Dieu  mesme. 

Fontaine's  philosophizing  on  good  love  ends  thus: 

Dame,  tu  voys  comme  on  doit  estimer 
La  beaute  vraye,  et  poursuyvre  et  aymer: 
Et  Ton  ne  doit,  au  contraire,  avoir  cure 
De  beaute  faincte  en  couleur  ou  figure: 
Et  que  1 'amour  est  chose  vertueuse, 
Honneste,  belle,  et  non  voluptueuse: 
Pareillement  comment  Pamour  s'estend 
Sur  homme  ou  femme,  et  nul  mal  ne  pretend. 
Car  aussi  tost  sur  femme  que  pucelle, 
En  qui  de  Dieu  la  clarte  estincelle, 
Et  aussi  tost  sur  homme  que  sur  femme 
Mon  cueur  d'amour  vertueuse  s'enflamme: 
Je  ne  m'arreste  aux  constellations, 
A  nourriture,  et  aux  complexions.2 

So  far  as  Platonism,  as  it  was  understood  during  the  Renais- 
sance, is  concerned,  Fontaine  has  now  gone  as  far  as  it  is  possible 
for  him  to  go.  He  has  given  a  clear  exposition  of  "  that  amalgam 
of  Platonism,  Neo-Platonism  and  Christianity  which  had  been 
compounded  by  Marsilio  Ficino  and  the  Florentine  Academy."  8 

1  Concerning  the  possibility  of  a  wicked  soul  inhabiting  a  beautiful  body,  see 
Cortegiano,  lib.  rv,  capp.  liii-lviii.    Concerning  the  possibility  of  one's  being  deceived 
by  a  beautiful  face  which  disguises  wantonness,  see  ibid.,  lib.  rv,  cap.  be. 

2  For  other  "  definitions  "  of  love,  see  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  Blanchemain  ed., 
vol.  i,  p.  82,  and  Ronsard,  Blanchemain  ed.,  vol.  i,  p.  216,  both  in  imitation  of 
a  poem  by  Bembo.    Concerning  the  "  definition  "  as  a  form  of  literature,  see  Sibilet, 
Art  poitique,  rr,  x. 

3  Cf.  p.  77,  note  2,  above. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  105 

In  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  which  is  based  largely  on  the  Sym- 
posium, and  in  the  Epitre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour,  which 
is  derived  wholly  from  the  Cortegiano,  he  has  set  forth  his  views 
on  honorable  earthly  love  and  spiritual  love  in  a  manner  that 
must  win  for  him  a  place  among  the  earliest  and  the  most  im- 
portant Platonists  of  the  French  Renaissance. 

To  return  to  the  "  querelle  des  amies."  It  was  as  the  lieutenant 
of  Fontaine  that  Antoine  Heroet  entered  the  debate  with  his 
Parfaicte  Amye.  M.  Gohin  who,  although  recognizing  that  the 
Contr'amye  de  Court  was  published  before  the  Parfaicte  Amye, 
evidently  discovered  no  Platonism  in  it,1  says  (pp.  xxviii-xxix) : 

Charles  Fontaine  semble  aussi  avoir  rallie  autour  de  lui  les  poetes  [to 
oppose  La  Borderie's  A mie  de  Court] ;  c'est  a  lui  en  effet,  comme  nous  ver- 
rons,  que  plusieurs  adressent  leurs  vers  vengeurs  ...  II  appartenait  a 
1'auteur  de  V Androgyne  [Heroet]  de  venger  le  dieu  outrage,  en  d6montrant  la 
celeste  origine  de  I'amour  et  son  heureuse  influence  sur  1'esprit  et  le  coeur  de 
1'homme.2  Heroet  laisse  entendre  qu'il  avait  d'abord  intitule  son  nouveau 
poeme  Perfection  d 'amour  ;  il  adopta  le  titre  de  la  Parfaicte  Amye,  sans  doute 
pour  1'opposer  plus  clairement  a  1'oeuvre  de  La  Borderie.  Le  debut  rappelle 
en  effet  presque  mot  pour  mot  le  debut  de  VAmie  de  Court;  dans  le  premier 
livre,  Heroet  reprend  en  detail  les  declarations  de  1'  "  amie  de  court,"  en 
faisant  honneur  a  son  heroine  de  sentiments  tout  opposes.  La  "  parfaicte 
amye  "  affecte  de  ne  pas  nommer  son  ennemie;  cette  marque  de  dedain  lui 
semble  imposee  par  le  sentiment  de  sa  dignite  .  .  .  Heroet  donna  a  sa 
replique  la  meme  forme  que  La  Borderie  avait  donnee  a  son  ceuvre. 

The  Parfaicte  Amye  is  divided  into  three  books.3  It  is  put  in 
the  mouth  of  a  married  woman  who,  having  been  forced  to  wed 

1  M.  Gohin  (p.  xxviii)  apparently  saw  in  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  only  a  regret 
for  the  "  amour  naif  d'autrefois, 

Lorsqu'on  allait  vestu  de  tketaine, 
cet  amour  du  '  bon  vieux  temps,'  disait  Clement  Marot, 

Qui  sans  grand  art  et  dons  se  d6menoit." 

M.  Lefranc,  in  his  latest  work,  Grands  ecrivains  franc,ais  de  la  Renaissance,  also 
makes  no  mention  of  the  Platonism  in  the  Contr'amye  de  Court. 

2  I  have  shown  above  that  Fontaine  treated  these  points. 

3  1662  lines  in  all.    For  Heroet's  borrowings  from  Plato  and  the  Cortegiano,  see 
the  notes  of  M.  Gohin  (pp.  5  ff.)  and  of  M.  Arnoux  (Un  precurseur  de  Ronsard,  A. 
Heroet,  pp.  60  ff.).    M.  Arnoux  gives  in  these  pages  a  detailed  synopsis  of  the 
Parfaicte  Amye. 


106  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

an  undesirable  husband,  seeks  extra-conjugal  felicity  in  the  love  of 
the  man  for  whom  she  was  destined.  She  states  her  feelings 
toward  her  husband  and  her  lover  as  follows: 

Dames,  oyez.    Icy  je  suis  contraincte 
De  convertir  ma  louange  en  complaincte. 
Si  par  parens,  par  commune  raison, 
Si  pour  haulser  1'honneur  de  ma  maison, 
A  la  mercy  d'ung  maistre  suis  submise, 
Long  temps  apres  qu'avois  este1  requise 
D'ung  serviteur,  lequel  n'estant  plus  sien, 
Je  ne  pouvois  esperer  d'estre  mien: 
Si  je  sers  1'ung  de  mauldicte  adventure, 
Et  je  commande  a  1'aultre  de  nature: 
Si  1'ung  m'est  vie,  et  1'aultre  dure  mort: * 
En  bien  aymant,  auquel  feray  je  tort, 
Ou  a  celuy  qui  de  mon  heur  abuse, 
Ou  a  celuy  qui  maulgre'  moy  refuse  ? 

In  the  beginning  of  the  first  book  the  Parfaicte  Amye  says  that 
it  is  not  her  intention  to  discourse  on  love  in  general.  That  would 
lead  her  too  far  afield,  for  are  there  not  as  many  kinds  of  love  as 
there  are  lovers  ?  Her  own  love  is  to  be  her  theme,  and  as  her 
love  is  perfect, 

Parfection  d'amour  sera  mon  livre 
Intitule". 

She  is  too  frank  to  try  to  make  her  listeners  believe  that  her 
love  has  always  been  the  divine  passion  that  now  fills  her  soul 
with  rapture.  She  was  so  young  when  she  became  enamored  of 
her  beloved  that  her  love  was  probably  due  to  his  handsome 
appearance  and  not  to  his  hidden  virtues.  But  years  have 
passed,  and  her  love  remains  as  chaste  and  as  firm  as  ever; 
instead  of  diminishing,  it  becomes  deeper  day  by  day: 

Et  si  ne  crains  que  jamais  temps  destruise 
Une  amytie",  qui  est  trop  myeulx  assise 
Que  sus  beault^,  fondement  non  durable: 2 
Plus  il  vieillist,  plus  je  le  trouve  aymable. 

1  This  is  merely  a  practical  opposition  of  Plato's  earthly  or  common  love  and 
heavenly  love  (Symposium,  Jowett,  i,  550-551).    Cf.  Fontaine,  pp.  101  ff.,  above. 

2  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  101,  above. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  107 

She  does  not  fear  the  accusation  that  she  began  to  love  her 
lover  because  of  his  dignities,  honors,  and  wealth: 

Luy  mesmes  scait  combien  d'empeschements 
Ses  biens  ont  faict  a  noz  contentements, 
Et  quantesfoys  soubhaitta  sa  richesse 
Estre  changed  en  paouvre  gentillesse,1 
Pour  esprouver  ce  qu'il  ne  pouvoit  croyre, 
Que  le  temps  seul  luy  a  rendu  notoyre. 

The  difference  between  her  love  and  the  love  of  ordinary 
mortals  lies  in  the  fact  that  hers  is  God-given,  and  that  she  has 
always  nourished  it  with  pure  thoughts: 

1'amytie,  qui  est  du  del  venue, 
Et  que  depuis  j'ay  fatalle  tenue, 
M'appercevant  que  sa  forte  ratine 
Issue  estoit  de  voulunte  divine  .  .  .* 
Mais  davantage  aux  dames  je  me  vente 
Que  si  divin  fut  son  commencement, 
Entretenu  je  1'ay  divinement. 
Premierement  quant  a  sa  nourriture, 
Je  1'ay  repeu  d'une  pensee  pure, 
Insatiable  a  mon  amy  pensant, 
Tant,  si  souvent,  et  de  cueur  si  pressant, 
Qu'on  eust  pens6  que  bien  tost  ma  pensee 
De  trop  penser  debvoit  estre  lassee: 
Mais  quand  j'avois  ung  pensement  passe, 
Je  1'oubliois  pour  estre  repense: 
Ainsi  de  luy  plus  que  de  moy  pensive, 
En  moy  j'estois  trop  plus  morte  que  vive, 
Et  ruminois  en  luy  non  aultrement 
Qu'en  me  rendant  mutuel  pensement, 
Comme  noz  cueurs  a  mourir  incites 
Se  soient  1'ung  1'autre  entreressuscites. 

This  interchange  of  thoughts  results  in  an  interchange  of  hearts, 
so  that  in  the  end  the  Parfaicte  Amye  becomes  the  possessor  of 
her  lover's  heart.  All  women  cannot  understand  this  kind  of  love : 

A  qui  seroit  sans  amour  eslevee, 
Faisant  vertu  d'ignorance  et  de  vice, 

1  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  94,  note  i,  above. 

2  Cf.  Fontaine,  pp.  101  ff.,  above. 


108  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Ne  congnoissant  aultre  Dieu  qu'avarice,1 
II  ne  fault  point  descouvrir  mes  parolles, 
Qu'elles  tiendroient  impossibles  ou  folles. 

Her  divine  love  prevents  the  Parfaicte  Amye  from  suffering  the 
pangs  of  jealousy  which  harass  women  engrossed  with  ordinary 
loves.  If  her  lover  is  loved  by  another  woman  more  beautiful 
than  herself,  she  renders  thanks  to  that  woman,  since  her  lover 
derives  pleasure  from  the  love  of  the  beautiful  woman,  and  inas- 
much as  his  heart  is  hers,  she  eventually  gets  all  the  enjoyment. 
Besides,  she  is  confident  that  the  cloud  will  soon  pass,  and  that 
her  lover  will  return  to  her  as  faithful  as  before. 

After  a  few  remarks  on  the  gossip  her  apparently  illegal  love 
may  occasion  (which  she  does  not  mind,  since  the  purity  of  her 
love  causes  her  to  scorn  scandalmongers) ,  after  several  thrusts  at 
her  wearisome  husband,  and  further  assurances  of  the  fidelity  of 
her  lover  and  of  herself,  the  Parfaicte  Amye  sets  forth  the  follow- 
ing conception  of  love:  Love  is  the  union  on  earth  of  two  souls 
which  have  been  previously  united  in  a  heavenly  existence,  and 
which,  by  a  complete  intellectual  understanding,  attest  the  divine 
origin  of  their  love.  With  a  word  on  the  spiritual  kiss  of  divine 
lovers,'  which  must  not  be  regarded  as  sinful,  the  Parfaicte  Amye 
brings  the  first  book  to  a  close. 

In  the  second  book  she  tells  what  would  become  of  her  should 
her  lover  precede  her  to  the  grave.2  She  says  that  she  does  not 
speak  of  the  death  of  her  "  amy  "  in  order  to  prepare  herself  for 
the  shock  his  death  would  cause  her.  She  is  aware  that  her  life 
will  be  short,  and  she  desires  to  make  the  most  of  her  beloved 
while  she  may.  But  should  he  die,  her  grief  would  be  inconsola- 
ble; death  would  be  her  only  refuge.  If,  after  her  lover's  death, 
her  husband  and  her  kindred  should  learn  of  her  love  for  him, 

1  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  93,  and  p.  94,  note  i,  above. 

1  M.  Gohin  and  M.  Arnoux  point  out  that  the  second  book  treats  the  essential 
ideas  of  Diotima's  speech  in  the  Symposium:  love  is  immortal;  terrestrial  love 
elevates  us  to  a  knowledge  of  God;  terrestrial  beauty  elevates  us  to  a  knowledge  of 
supreme  beauty. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  109 

little  would  she  care.  Her  grief  at  his  death  would  outweigh  any 
sorrow  that  might  arise  from  the  scorn  of  the  world. 

According  to  popular  belief,  continues  the  Parfaicte  Amye, 
death  brings  about  the  separation  of  soul  and  body.  When  her 
lover's  soul  leaves  his  body,  she  prays  that  a  like  favor  may  be 
granted  her,  that  their  souls  may  be  reunited  in  heaven  whence 
they  came. 

She  makes  known  her  lover's  ideas  on  beauty: 

II  me  souvient  luy  avoir  ouy  dire 
Que  la  beaulte  que  nous  voyons  reluyre 
Es  corps  humains  n'estoit  qu'une  estincelle 
De  ceste  la  qu'il  nommoit  immortelle: 
Que  ceste  cy,  bien  qu'elle  fust  sortie 
De  la  celeste,  et  d'elle  une  partie, 
Si  toutesfoys  entre  nous  perissoit, 
Si  s'augmentoit,  ou  s'elle  decroissoit, 
Que  Paultre  estoit  entiere  et  immobile. 

This  [says  Mr.  Kerr]  is  the  Renaissance  doctrine  of  beauty  as  interpreted 
by  the  cultured  Platonist  exegetes  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  Bembo, 
Castiglione,  by  Marguerite  of  Navarre  .  .  . l 

Heroet  now  proceeds  [he  continues 2]  to  elaborate  a  very  remarkable 
theory,  that  alluded  to  on  page  25  [see  p.  108,  above].  His  idea  is  that  our 
souls  before  being  summoned  to  put  on  earthly  bodies  were  engaged  in 
heaven  in  the  contemplation  of  divine  beauty;  that  after  birth  the  memory 
of  the  previous  state  is  practically  lost,  but  that  a  remembrance  of  it  is 
vouchsafed  to  those  who  here  below  love  truly.  Then  the  experience  of  love 
brings  back  to  the  lover  a  recollection  of  his  former  bliss,  and  with  this  stand- 
ard of  eternal  beauty  in  mind,  the  lover  is  now  able  rightly  to  measure 
earthly  beauty  as  a  part  and  pattern  of  the  beauty  which  pervades  and 
transfuses  the  universe  [Mr.  Kerr  quotes  n,  897-913]. 

In  the  theory  here  put  forward  Heroet  appears  to  go  a  step  beyond  his 
contemporaries  who,  basing  themselves  pretty  squarely  on  the  Symposium, 
held  only  that  the  lover  was  insensibly  raised  by  the  contemplation  of  human 
beauty  —  and,  especially  to  the  Renaissance,  as  typified  in  a  woman  —  to  a 
comprehension  of  celestial  beauty.  Heroet,  however,  makes  it  clear  that  a 
spiritual  love  of  woman  may  awaken  recollection  of  a  pre-natal  experience  of 
heavenly  beauty,  which  then  becoming  our  standard  enables  us  to  judge 
correctly  the  nature  and  meaning  of  that  physical  beauty  with  which  we  have 
fallen  in  love. 

1  Pull,  oj 'the  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n  of  America,  1905,  p.  578.    Mr.  Kerr  might  have 
added  "  by  Fontaine  "  (cf.  pp.  101  ff.,  above). 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  578  ff. 


HO  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Heioet  now  attempts  to  account  for  the  Platonic  lover's  feelings  —  a  mix- 
ture "  d'horreur  et  d'admiration  "  1  on  beholding  his  lady: 

Cela  ne  vient  d'humaine  affection 
Ny  de  la  terre,  ainsi  que  nous  pensons: 
II  vient  du  ciel,  dont  nous  recongnoissons 
Ceste  beaulte'  de  femme  estre  sortie, 
Et  nous  souvient  du  tout  par  la  partie: 2 
II  nous  souvient  de  la  saison  passee, 
De  la  beault6,  qu'au  ciel  avons  Iaiss6e. 

This  is  the  purest  Platonism:  contact  with  a  part  of  beauty  is  to  remind 
the  lover  that  the  cause  of  his  feelings  is  not  of  human  origin;  but  descends 
from  heaven,  which  also  is  the  source  of  woman's  beauty.* 

H£roet  hints  at  a  conception  of  Platonism  as  something  akin  to  a  social 
gospel,  an  idea  we  find  in  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  who  seems  for  a  time  at 
least  to  have  looked  upon  Platonism  as  a  lever  by  which  woman  might  exert 
a  refining  influence  over  man  .  .  .*  According  to  Heroet,  then,  the  soul, 
recognizing  in  its  earthly  love  an  echo  of  the  divine,  feels  —  and  this  is  a  nice 
Neo-Platonic  touch  —  that  beauty  has  predestinated  and  chosen  it ;  so  the 
lover,  feeling  his  "  calling  and  election  sure,"  tries  to  curb  his  passions, 
purify  his  lif e,  and  by  the  proper  use  of  earthly  beauty  to  attain  to  higher 
things  .  .  . 

The  final  note  of  Book  n  is  that  of  the  future  bliss  of  the  lovers  when 
reunited  in  heaven,  in  enjoyment  of  that  beauty  towards  which  their  present 
love  is  but  a  desire.8 

In  the  third  book,6  after  speaking  of  man's  duty  to  sacrifice  to 
love  as  the  propagator  of  the  human  race,  the  Parfaicte  Amye 

1  The  passage  referred  to  by  Mr.  Kerr  follows: 

Voyez,  disoit,  amye,  quelcque  aymant 
Qui  ait  le  bruict  d'aymer  bien  loyaulment, 
Si  quelcque  dame  a  d'amour  poursuivy, 
Quand  il  la  veoit,  est  surprins  et  ravy, 
Crainct,  et  s'asseure,  ose,  et  puis  se  retient, 
Ung  tremblement  par  tout  le  corps  luy  vient, 
Et  raisonnable  ensemble  et  vouluntaire, 
Voulant  parler  est  forc6  de  se  taire. 

Compare  these  lines  with  those  of  Fontaine,  p.  95,  above,  beginning  "  Et  de  la 
vient." 

J  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  103,  above.  *  Cf.  Fontaine,  pp.  101-103,  above. 

4  Cf.  Fontaine,  pp.  92,  96,  97,  above. 

*  The  gist  of  the  passage  follows:    In  heaven 

Vertu  voirrons,  non  pas  comme  elle  semble, 
Mais  comme  elle  est.    La  beaulte  trouverons 
Et  la  bonte. 

For  this  juxtaposition  of  virtue,  beauty,  and  goodness,  cf.  Fontaine,  p.  98,  above. 
6  Cf .  M.  Gohin  (p.  58,  note  i) :   "  Ce  troisieme  livre  correspond  aux  discours 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  in 

declares  that  this  world  is  a  wretched  vale  of  tears,  full  of  evil, 
ambition,  envy,  sorrow,  and  torments.  A  miserable  abode  it 
would  be  if  one  were  unable  to  find  a  guide,  and  this  guide  can  be 
only  the  heaven-sent  lover. 

The  woman  who  loves  knows  what  suits  her  lover,  knows  how 
to  appease  his  anger  and  to  anticipate  his  every  desire.1  She  can 
never  be  charged  with  ignorance, 

Car  1'ignorante  ou  sotte  n'ayme  poinct. 

As  to  the  body: 

Y  a  il  rien  qui  nuyse 
A  femme  tant,  quelcque  chose  qu'on  die, 
Que  la  laydeur  ou  que  la  maladie  ? 
Certes  nenny.    Car,  comme  la  beaulte 
Est  le  pourtraict  d'excellente  bonte, 
Ainsi  laydeur  est  signe  de  tout  vice 
Et  se  peult  dire  image  de  malice.2 

However,  says  the  Parfaicte  Amye,  every  woman  cannot  be 
beautiful.  Some  are  more  beautiful  than  others  in  the  beginning, 
but  love  places  them  all  on  the  same  level: 

Femme  qui  est  aymee  et  amoureuse 
Oncques  ne  fut  layde  ou  malicieuse. 

The  Parfaicte  Amye  seeks  to  encourage  her  needy  sisters  by 
declaring  that  poverty  should  never  deter  them  from  loving,  and 
to  spur  on  the  timid  creatures  who,  steeped  in  the  nonsense  of 

d'Alcibiade  et  d'Agathon,  dans  le  Banquet  [Symposium],  sur  la  nature  et  les  bienfaits 
de  1'amour:  Pamour  donne  la  vie,  le  bonheur,  la  science,  etc."  Hfiroet  says,  for 
example: 

Ne  debvons  nous  a  1'amour,  comme  autheur 

De  nostre  vie  et  vray  m&iiateur, 

Sacrifier  ?  et  touts,  femmes  et  hommes, 

Le  mercier  de  ce  que  par  luy  sommes  ?  .  .  . 

.  .  .  c'est  luy  seul,  qui  le  bien  nous  de'livre, 

Et  qui  nous  faict  touts  heureusement  vivre  .  .  . 

Le  plus  grief  mal  qui  advienne  a  personne, 

C'est  cestuy  la  que  1'ignorance  donne  .  .  . 

Qui  ayme  bien,  quiconque  amour  honore, 

Ou  rien,  ou  peu,  moins  que  tout  aultre  ignore. 

Cf.  Fontaine,  pp.  89,  91,  92,  above. 

1  Unselfishness  is  one  of  the  most  striking  traits  of  the  Parfaicte  Amye. 

2  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  98,  above. 


112  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Petrarch  and  his  imitators,  may  shrink  from  love  for  fear  of  the 
torments  these  poets  declare  to  be  its  necessary  concomitants. 

Ceile  qui  ayme  est  riche  a  suffisance, 

Elle  a  tousjours  de  son  bien  jouyssance: 

Ambition  ne  la  sgauroit  tenir 

Ny  avarice  aultre  circonvenir  .  .  . l 

Et  s'en  fault  tant  qu'amants,  qui  se  contentent, 

Le  mal  venant  de  pauvret6  ne  sentent, 

Qu'il  n'est  remede  au  monde,  ny  science, 

Que  bien  aymer  pour  fuyr  indigence.2 

True  love  is  always  reciprocal: 

Dames,  je  vous  promets 
Qu'il  n'adviendra,  et  il  n'advint  jamais, 
Que  vraye  amour  n'ayt  este  reciprocque.1 

The  Parfaicte  Amye  closes  her  discourse  with  this  exhortation 
to  women: 

Faictes  a  luy  [a  votre  ami]  de  voz  cueurs  sacrifice, 
Laissez  luy  en  tout  le  gouvernement, 
Et  s'il  ne  faict  bien  et  heureusement 
Vivre  chascune  en  ses  amours  contente, 
Ne  m'appellez  jamais  parfaicte  amante. 

Whoever  reads  carefully  Fontaine's  Contr'amye  de  Court  and 
Uptire,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour  and  Heroet's  Parfaicte 
Amye,  and  examines  the  parallel  ideas  in  Heroet's  and  Fontaine's 
poems,  will,  I  am  sure,  be  convinced  that,  in  so  far  as  essential 
ideas  are  concerned,  the  Platonism  of  the  two  poets  is  virtually 
identical.4  This  need  occasion  no  surprise.  Fontaine  and 
Heroet  were  friends  who  had  studied  Plato's  doctrines,  who  had 
perhaps  conversed  about  them,  and  who,  in  answering  the  same 
poem,  La  Borderie's  Amie  de  Court,  based  their  answers  on  the 

1  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  97,  above. 

2  For  Fontaine's  ideas  on  poverty,  cf.  p.  94,  note  i,  above. 

8  Compare  He'roet's  poem,  Aultre  invention  extraicte  de  Platon.  De  n 'aymer  point 
sans  estre  ayme  (Gohin,  pp.  96-99).  Cf.  Fontaine,  p.  92,  above. 

4  The  sole  essential  idea  in  the  Parfaicte  Amye  that  does  not  occur  in  the  Contr'- 
amye  de  Court  or  in  the  £pltre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour  is  the  one  that  Mr. 
Kerr  calls  "  a  very  remarkable  theory  "  (p.  109,  above),  only  the  germ  of  which,  at 
most,  is  to  be  found  in  Plato. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  113 

writings  of  the  same  authors,  Plato  and  Castiglione.  The  differ- 
ences in  the  Platonism  of  the  two  men  are  also  quite  natural. 
Heroet  derived  his  ideas  from  Plato's  Symposium,  Phaedrus,  and 
Lysis,  and  from  Castiglione's  Cortegiano;  Fontaine  confined 
himself  almost  entirely  to  the  Symposium  and  the  Cortegiano. 
Although  Fontaine's  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  published,  and  his 
Epttre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour  was  possibly  written, 
before  Heroet's  Par/aide  Amye  was  published,  and  although 
Heroet  probably  got  the  title  of  his  Parfaicte  Amye  from  the 
closing  lines  of  the  Contr'amye,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Fon- 
taine's poems  did  not  influence  that  of  Heroet  in  the  least.  The 
close  resemblance  between  their  ideas  is  merely  a  coincidence 
caused  by  the  fact  that  they  chose  practically  the  same  sources. 

The  number  of  editions  of  the  Contr'amye  and  of  the  Parfaicte 
Amye  —  a  score  for  each,  about  ten  before  1550  —  and  the  praises 
of  contemporaries  indicate  that  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  quite 
as  popular  with  the  readers  of  1542-50  as  was  the  Parfaicte  Amye. 
The  Renaissance  was  a  time  of  jousting  in  books  as  well  as  in  the 
lists.  The  Contr'amye  de  Court's  wrangling  with  the  Amie  de 
Court,  the  part  of  Fontaine's  poem  that  appeals  least  to  the 
modern  reader,  probably  appealed  as  much  to  the  reader  of  the 
sixteenth  century  as  did  the  ideas  derived  from  the  Symposium. 

To  a  discerning  reader  of  the  present  day,  however,  the  Par- 
faicte Amye  is  in  some  respects  superior  to  the  Contr'amye  de 
Court.  We  cannot  but  think  that  Heroet  displayed  rare  judg- 
ment in  assuming  a  disdainful  attitude  towards  the  Amie  de 
Court,  and  in  refusing  to  give  direct  replies  to  her  cynical  obser- 
vations. Such  an  attitude  enabled  him  to  maintain  a  dignified 
philosophical  tone  throughout  the  Parfaicte  Amye.  Heroet's 
Platonism  forms  the  entire  theme  of  his  poem;  Fontaine's 
Platonism  is  mingled  with  more  or  less  trivial  digressions  and 
with  attempts  to  refute  the  Amie  de  Court.  Heroet's  philosophic 
ideas  are  always  uppermost  in  the  reader's  mind;  Fontaine's 
philosophic  ideas  are  not  so  easily  separated  from  matters  of 
lesser  import. 


114  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  style  of  the  Parfaicte  Amye  and  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court 
is  in  keeping  with  the  attitude  of  the  two  poets  toward  the  sub- 
ject in  hand.  H6roet  is  grave  and  serene  throughout;  Fontaine 
is  more  free  and  easy,  more  terre  d  terre.  Heroet's  style  is  often 
labored  and  obscure,1  Fontaine's  is  generally  fluent  and  clear. 
That  Fontaine  was  capable  of  a  style  as  lofty  and  dignified  as 
Heroet's  at  its  best  is  shown  by  the  fipitre,  philosophant  sur  la 
bonne  amour. 

As  La  Borderie  found  opponents  in  Fontaine  and  Heroe't, 
Fontaine  found  an  opponent  only  too  eager  to  pen  a  reply  to  the 
Contr'amye.  This  unheralded  champion  —  unheralded  save  by 
his  own  impudent  trumpet  —  was  Paul  Angier,  a  native  of 
Carentan,  in  Normandy.  The  poem  in  which  he  opposed  Fon- 
taine's views  is  entitled  Experience  de  M.  Paul  Angier,  Carentenois, 
contenant  une  brief ve  defense  en  la  personne  de  VHonneste  Amant 
de  Court  contre  la  Contr'amye.2  That  the  youthful  Paul  —  he  was 
eighteen  years  old  when  he  replied  to  Fontaine  —  was  not  lacking 
in  presumption  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  his  Experience  was 
accompanied  by  a  few  verses  addressed  to  "  tres  scientifiques 
poetes,  Marot,  Saint-Gelais,  Heroe't,  Salel,  Borderie,  Rabelais, 
Seve,  Chapuy,  et  autres  poetes  "  by  "  Paul  Angier,  leur  humble 
disciple."  Whether  Marot,  Saint-Gelais,  Rabelais,  Sceve  and 
the  other  "  very  scientific  poets  "  would  have  been  willing  to 
acknowledge  themselves  the  masters  of  Angier  may  be  judged 
from  the  brief  extracts  from  the  Experience  cited  below. 

Angier,  who  dubs  himself  Honneste  Amant,  sides  with  La 
Borderie 3  against  Fontaine.  He  takes  the  stand  that  Cupid  is 
not  the  god  of  pure  love,  as  Fontaine  had  asserted,  but  of  foul 
debauchery  and  lechery: 

1  Mr.  Tilley's  estimate  of  the  poetic  worth  of  the  Parfaicte  Amye  is  correct: 
"  ...  it  is  only  in  occasional  passages  that  it  rises  to  real  poetry." 

1  The  earliest  appearance  of  Angler's  poem  seems  to  have  been  in  the  Mespris  de 
la  Court  .  .  .  Paris,  Galiot  du  Pr6,  1544. 

3  M.  Gohin  (p.  xxxv,  note  2)  is  of  the  opinion  that  La  Borderie  and  Angier  were 
one,  an  opinion  shared  by  neither  M.  fimile  Picot  (Catalogue  Rothschild,  i,  545)  nor 
M.  fimile  Roy  (Revue  d'Hist.  lilt,  de  la  France,  1897,  p.  414). 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  115 

C'est  qu'il  [Amour]  ne  peut  jamais  me  faire  croyre 
Qu'il  soit  un  dieu  digne  de  telle  gloire 
Comme  1'a  faict  de  Court  la  Contr'amie, 
Mais  un  enfant  de  toute  infamie  .  .  . 

la  paillardise  infame, 
Dont  Cupido  est  le  dieu  inconstant. 

Angier  represents  himself  as  the  object  of  the  attacks  of  this 
degraded  deity,  who  strives  to  win  him  over  to  a  dissolute  life. 
Fortunately,  he  has  two  puissant  protectors,  Pallas  and  Hymen. 
The  latter,  seeing  the  snares  that  Love  is  laying  in  the  path  of  his 
protege,  rescues  him  by  causing  him  to  fall  in  love  with  a  virtuous 
and  honorable  maiden  "  d'amour  honneste,  amour  licite  et 
chaste  "; 

Et  telle  amour  si  fort  luy  [Hymen]  agreoyt, 

Si  bonnement  tous  deux  nous  recreoyt 

Qu'onneste  amant  il  luy  pleut  me  nommer, 

Et  la  sachant  aussi  tant  bien  m'aymer, 

Je  1'appellay  la  chaste  amye  et  rare, 

De  chastete  entierement  avare. 

The  Honneste  Amant  heaps  a  good  deal  of  abuse  on  the  Contr'- 
amye's  head.  The  following  quotations  will  suffice  to  show  that 
the  humble  disciple  of  Marot  and  Rabelais  completely  misunder- 
stood the  position  taken  by  Fontaine's  heroine.  People  who  are 
like  the  Contr'amye,  says  he, 

Ilz  ayment  mieulx  une  paillarde  infame 

Qu'avoir  plaisante  et  amiable  femme  .  .  . 

Mais  seulement  du,terme  amour  abuses, 

L'atribuant,  et  louanges  infuses, 

A  Cupido,  qui  est  plus  tost  furie 

Que  dieu  celeste,  et  une  penurie 

De  vraye  amour  .  .  . 

La  Contr'amye  indocte  et  imprudente, 

De  folle  amour  amatrice  evidente. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Honneste  Amant,  the  Contr'amye  is 
doomed  to  die  uncourted  and  unloved: 

Et  penses  tu  qu'une  folle  et  non  brave 
Ou  une  belle  et  prudente  trop  grave 
Requise  soit  ?    Nenny  non.    L'on  la  laisse 


Il6  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Avec  sa  grand  gravitS  et  noblesse, 

Et  d'elle  aucun  grand  seigneur  ne  tient  compte, 

Dont  en  apres  elle  meurt  de  grand  honte. 

It  would  be  useless  to  consider  further  the  Experience.  Angier 
brings  nothing  new  into  the  debate,  and  rather  detracts  from  its 
interest  by  introducing  unnecessary  obscenity  and  vituperation, 
and  by  constantly  repeating  La  Borderie's  views.1 

Guillaume  des  Autelz  sounded  the  proper  note  when  he  ad- 
dressed the  following  verses  to  the  Honneste  Amant: 

Tiltre  d'honneur  toy  mesme  t'es  donne, 

Qui  n'es  rien  moins,  en  maint  propos,  qu'honneste: 

Quant  au  sg avoir  tu  n'en  es  pas  orne, 

Et  n'as  rien  moins  que  laurier  sur  ta  teste: 

Et  toutesfois  Ton  scait  que  qui  s'appreste 

Blasmer  1'amour  faict  chose  assez  facile: 

Le  bien  louer  c'est  chose  difficile. 

Certes  d'autant  la  Contr'amye  passe 

En  bon  scavoir,  en  doulceur,  et  en  grace, 

Toy,  le  dernier  des  novices  rimeurs, 

Qui  viens  1'amour  blasmer  sans  efficace: 

Et  apres  toy  tous  les  autres  blasmeurs.2 

In  another  poem,  Des  Autelz  shows  his  contempt  for  both 
Angier  and  La  Borderie  and  his  admiration  for  Fontaine  who,  in 
his  opinion,  is  quite  the  equal  of  Virgil  and  Marot: 

Lors  commencay  lire  ta  Contr'amye, 
Des  ennemis  d'amour  forte  ennemie: 
Ou  le  frangais  Marot  n'eust  mis  tel  ordre, 
Ny  le  latin  Maro  n'eust  seu  rien  mordre. 
Certes  quand  bien  je  voy  ta  veine  roide, 
Je  trouve  trop  1'Amye  de  Court  f roide: 
Et  m'esbay  que  cet  Honneste  Amant, 
Hors  de  raison,  forcluz  de  jugement, 
Osa  montrer  sa  vaine  et  sotte  rime, 
Qui  a  besoing  encore  de  longue  lime. 
Je  croy  qu'il  veult  avoir  en  paragon 

1  Cf.  Goujet,  Bibl.  franc.,  vol.  xi,  p.  153:  "  Sa  piece  est  froide,  sans  tegfcrete1,  sans 
ddlicatesse:   au  lieu  de  raisons,  il  a  souvent  recours  aux  injures,  et  lance  centre 
Fontaine  des  traits  que  celui-ci  ne  mdritoit  point." 

2  Opuscules  d' 'Amour,  Lyons,  1547,  p.  236. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  117 

Ce  poetastre  et  Zoile  Sagon, 

Qui  desirant  faire  voir  son  ouvrage, 

Monstra  a  plain  comme  il  estoit  peu  sage: 

Et  pour  avoir  en  ses  escris  bon  eur, 

Sans  bon  conseil  vouloit  noircir  1'honneur 

D'un  dont  le  nom  durera  comme  il  dure. 

Et  cet  Amant  s'efforce  faire  injure 

A  toy,  qui  as  par  escritz  merit6 

D'estre  loue  de  la  posterite. 

Encor  (qui  plus  me  desplaist)  c'est  qu'il  pense 

Que  Ton  prendra  plaisir  en  son  offense, 

En  invitant  les  plus  divins  espritz 

De  nostre  temps  a  lire  ses  escritz: 

Et  puis  il  a  maint  terme  vil  et  laid, 

D'honneste  amant  indigne  et  de  varlet. 

Je  croirois  bien  que  Sangelais  et  Sceve 

Prendront  plaisir  en  un  homme  qui  resve: 

Je  croirois  bien  qu'  Heroet  et  Chappuy 

Daigneront  lire  ouvrage  de  celuy 

Duquel  la  Muse  est  jeune,  inepte  et  sotte: 

Et  toutesfois  a  Fontaine  se  frotte. 

Donq  en  lisant  1'oeuvre  tant  gracieux 

De  cet  Amant  fol  et  audacieux, 

D'ardent  despit  mon  courage  s'allume.1 

Fontaine  made  no  reply  to  the  Honneste  Amant.  Des  Autelz, 
who  was  thoroughly  aroused  by  Angier's  coarse  attacks,  gener- 
ously offered  to  take  up  the  cudgels  for  Fontaine,  but  he  re- 
frained from  doing  so  upon  Fontaine's  advice: 

A  ce  que  quiers  si  response  dois  faire 

A  cet  Amant  de  tant  mauvaise  affaire: 

Et  qui  son  nom  trop  lourdement  efface, 

D'avis  ne  suis  que  ta  Muse  la  face: 

Car  s'il  en  fust  en  quelque  sort  digne, 

D'autres  amis  de  leur  grace  bSnigne 

L'eussent  ja  faite:  ou  Le  Jouvre,  ou  Le  Sage  .  .  .2 

Et  si  tu  dis  qu'a  1'Amie  de  Court 

J'ay  respondu:  je  te  dy  brief  et  court 

Qu'elle  a  propos  et  grace  trop  meilleure 

1  Les  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine,  pp.  230-231.  Des  Autelz  wrote  under  the  imperfect 
anagram  Teshault. 

1  Concerning  Le  Jouvre,  see  p.  214,  below.  I  can  find  no  information  about 
Fontaine's  friend  Le  Sage. 


Il8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Que  cet  Amant  qui  pour  elle  labeure : 
Et  je  voyant  qu'elle  estoit  en  hault  pris, 
A  la  response  appliquay  mes  espritz, 
Querant  1'honneur  qu'un  poete  doit  querre.1 

Angier's  Experience  was  the  last  of  the  poems  that  had  a  direct 
bearing  on  the  "  querelle  des  amies."  In  the  dizain  cited  above,2 
Claude  Collet  mentions  in  connection  with  the  debate  two  other 
poems,  Almaque  Papillon's  Nouvel  Amour  (1543)  and  Gilles 
d'Aurigny's  Tuteur  d' Amour  (1546),  only  because  they  treat  of 
love.3 

Beginning  with  La  Borderie's  Amie  de  Court,  with  its  base 
views  on  love,  and  ending  with  Angier's  obscene  and  vituperative 
Experience,  the  "  querelle  des  amies  "  lasted  for  several  years. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  pp.  236-237. 

*  P.  79,  note  i. 

*  In  Papillon's  Nouvel  Amour,  Love,  weary  of  being  regarded  as  a  child  and  blind, 
and  elated  by  the  chaste  love  that  he  has  caused  between  a  king  (probably  Francis 
I)  and  a  lady,  makes  known  to  Venus  that  henceforth  he  purposes  to  perform  his 
duties  without  the  aid  of  her  artifices  and  seductions.    Venus  rebukes  and  menaces 
Love,  and  tells  him  that  without  her  assistance  his  power  will  come  to  naught. 
Jupiter  assembles  the  gods,  harangues  Love,  and  finally  reconciles  him  with  his 
mother,  not  however  without  approving  the  love  of  the  king  and  the  lady.  —  For  a 
fuller  synopsis  of  the  Nouvel  Amour,  see  Goujet,  Bibl.  franf.,  vol.  xi,  pp.  154-156. 
—  In  the  Tuteur  d' Amour,  d'Aurigny  tells  how,  upon  reaching  the  age  when  thoughts 
begin  to  turn  to  love,  he  abandons  his  studies  and  seeks  to  make  himself  agreeable 
in  social  gatherings.    On  all  sides  he  hears  about  Eros  and  the  torments  that  he 
inflicts  on  men  and  women.    The  poet  decides  to  conquer  the  cruel  god.    The 
result  of  his  effort  is  briefly  told  in  the  following  dizain  by  Henri  Simon,  one  of 
d'Aurigny's  friends: 

L'enfant  Amour,  tant  inhumain  fust  il, 
N'avoit  one  eu  du  Tuteur  congnoissance: 
Et  le  Tuteur  plus  jeune  que  subtil 
Ha  eu  vouloir  de  rcgir  son  enfance. 
Ce  qu'il  ha  fait  est  de  telle  prudence 
Qu'il  tint  Amour  longuement  souflreteux: 
Mesmes  son  dard  tlambant  et  dangereux 
Sans  estre  veu  fut  long  temps  inutile: 
Mais  en  la  fin  il  fut  si  furieux 
Que  du  Tuteur  il  en  feit  un  pupille. 
(Le  Tuteur  d' Amour,  Lyons,  1547,  p.  6.) 

For  a  more  complete  analysis  of  d'Aurigny's  poem,  see  Goujet,  Bibl.franf.,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  167  ff.  For  other  poems  inspired  by  the  poems  of  the  "  querelle  des  amies," 
see  Gohin,  p.  xxxiii,  and  p.  xxxvi,  note  i. 


THE  PLATONISM  OF  FONTAINE  119 

Between  La  Borderie's  interesting  poem  and  Angier's  bungle 
were  Fontaine's  Contr'amye  de  Court  and  Heroet's  Parfaicte 
Amye,  both  written  in  defense  of  pure  and  honorable  love  of  an 
unmistakably  Platonic  nature.  Judged  by  a  modern  standard, 
in  so  far  as  individual  merit  is  concerned,  perhaps  the  Parfaicte 
Amye  should  be  ranked  first,  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  second,  the 
Amie  de  Court  third,  and  the  Experience  last.  The  readers  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  however,  were  not  so  exacting;  the  efforts  of 
all  the  participants  in  the  debate  were  warmly  received,  according 
to  the  following  passage  from  Guillaume  Colletet's  manuscript: 
"  .  .  .  les  imprimeurs  n'en  firent  qu'un  seul  volume  qu'ils 
reimprimerent  une  infinite  de  fois,  et  qui  passa  longtemps  pour  le 
modele  des  courtisans  et  pour  les  delices  des  dames  de  la  cour  du 
roi  Francois  Ier."  1 

1  Colletet,  Vies  des  poties  franqois,  fol.  82. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE 

Fontaine  weds  Flora.  —  Their  children.  —  Estreines  d  certains  seigneurs  el  dames 
de  Lyon. — Epitome  des  trois  premiers  livres  de  Artemidorus,  ancien  autheur,  traictant 
des  songes.  — Epitome  des  cinq  livres  d'Artemidore.  —  Lawsuit.  —  Journey  to  Paris. 
—  Poverty.  —  Fontaine  the  proof-reader.  —  Editor  of  the  (Euvres  de  Clement 
Marot.  —  Promptuaire  des  medattes. 

MARGUERITE  CARME,  Charles  Fontaine's  first  wife,  died  at  some 
time  prior  to  February,  1544.  Fontaine  makes  no  mention  of  her 
death,  and  this  fact  tends  to  prove,  as  has  been  conjectured  in  a 
previous  chapter,  that  it  was  not  with  her  that  he  put  into  prac- 
tice his  lofty  ideas  on  love. 

In  February,  1544,  Fontaine  married  a  young  woman  named 
Fleurie,  or  Flora,  a  native  of  the  village  of  Chaponost.1  In  a  short 
poem,  L'Auteur fait  mention  de  ses  secondes  nopces*  which  Goujet 
found  as  frigid  as  the  month  in  which  the  poet  was  married, 
Maitre  Charles  gives  the  date  of  his  nuptials  and  adds  that  his 
love  for  Marguerite  Carme  is  on  the  wane: 

L'an  mil  cinq  cens  quarante  quatre, 

Au  court  moys  (qui  or  long  sera, 

Et  sa  rigueur  delaissera) 

Fut  pour  en  bonne  amour  s'6batre 

Lie1  Fontaine  avec  Flora: 

Car  trop  fletrissant  demoura 

Sa  Marguerite  (amour  premiere) : 

Done  au  printemps  s'enamoura 

De  Flora,  florissant,  non  fiere. 

1  Fontaine  honored  Chaponost,  which  is  situated  a  few  kilometers  south  of 
Lyons,  with  the  following  quatrain: 

Chaponnot,  lieu  hault  et  non  maigre, 
Ou  ma  Flora  fut  verdissant, 
Tu  sois  tousjours  sain  et  allaigre, 
Et  mieux  que  Tempi  florissant. 

(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  187:  A  la  bourgade  de  Chaponnol,  au  Lyonnois, 
lieu  natal  de  sa  Fleurie,  ou  Flora.) 

*  Ibid.,  p.  102. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  1 21 

It  was  in  his  second  wife  that  Fontaine  found  his  affinity.  To 
her  he  addressed  scores  of  poems,  all  of  which  breathe  the  most 
profound  respect  and  love.  The  following  lines,  for  instance,  extol 
some  of  her  rare  qualities: 

Ton  port  droit  et  ta  belle  allure 
Avec  naturelle  allegresse, 
Ton  corps,  qui  de  taille  et  mesure 
Se  jette  en  moyenne  hautesse, 
Qui  me  passe  ou  qui  me  mesure, 
Ton  maintien,  qui  me  sent  son  bien, 
Sont  tes  dons  que  chacun  voit  bien: 
Mais  ton  bon  sens,  joint  a  1'usage, 
Mais  ton  peu  de  parolle  sage, 
Qui  s'egale  avec  ta  prudence, 
Ton  prevoir  et  ton  hault  courage 
Ne  sont  a  tous  en  evidence.1 

Another  short  poem  will  suffice  to  show  Fontaine's  love  for 

Flora: 

Ta  vertu  et  honnestete 

T'ont  fait  de  fille  estre  ma  femme, 

Et  1'espoir  de  ta  chastete, 

Qui  1'honneur  jamais  ne  diffame, 

Fait  que  je  t'ayme  corps  et  ame 

Plus  cher  que  mon  ceil  et  ma  vie: 

Aymant  1'honneur,  tu  fuis  le  blasme, 

Car  la  vertu  tu  as  suyvie.2 

The  union  of  Fontaine  and  Flora  was  very  fruitful.  Eight 
children  —  six  sons  and  two  daughters  —  were  born  to  them:  a 
daughter  who  died  at  her  birth,  Gaspard,  Frangoise,  Jean, 
Rene,  Sebastien,  Charles,  and  Jacques.  In  an  ode  inscribed  to 
Fontaine,  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet  declares  that  this  numerous 
progeny  is  one  of  Heaven's  blessings  on  the  father: 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  85.  —  Flora,  like  Marguerite,  was  a  brunette: 
Puis  y  venoit  Florie,  ma  brunette. 

(Ibid.,  p.  192.) 

1  Ibid.,  p.  in.  —  This  marriage,  so  satisfactory  to  both  parties,  was  opposed 
either  before  or  after  it  was  contracted,  by  whom  and  on  what  grounds  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  say.    Among  commonplaces  relating  to  his  marriage,  Fontaine  says: 
Bien  qu'on  cuidoit  rompre  cette  alliance, 
Laquelle  au  ciel  ecrite  on  trouvera. 

(Ibid.,  p.  no.) 


122  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Aussi  les  cieux  1'ont  fortune^ 
Et  se  montrans  larges  donneurs, 
De  beaux  enfans  luy  ont  donn6, 
Des  enfans  qui  font  ses  honneurs.1 

Du  Tronchet  was  not  wholly  in  error.  Fontaine's  children 
brought  him  honor,  but  in  an  indirect  way.  Some  of  his  most 
touching  verses  were  addressed  to  them,  generally  at  their  birth  or 
death.  To  Franchise  he  penned  these  lines,  filled  with  paternal 
love  and  joy: 

Parisienne  et  Lyonnoise, 

De  nom  et  nation  francoise, 

Ma  seule  fillette  en  ce  monde, 

Dont  la  charge  tant  peu  me  poise, 

Quand  tu  te  ris  je  me  degoise, 

Quand  tu  gasoilles  je  me  fonde 

Rentier  en  jeunesse  profonde: 

Dieu  te  doint  bon  esprit  sans  noise, 

Comme  on  lit  en  ta  face  blonde 

Douceur,  bon  eur,  grace  et  faconde, 

Autant  qu'en  dame  ou  en  bourgeoise.2 

The  following  poem,  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jan,  second  filz 
de  I'auteur,  the  only  one  of  Fontaine's  poems  ever  reproduced  in 
French  anthologies,  is  usually  regarded  as  his  best: 

Mon  petit  filz  qui  n'as  encor  rien  veu, 
A  ce  matin  ton  pere  te  salue: 
Vien  t'en,  vien  voir  ce  monde  bien  pourveu 
D 'honneurs  et  biens  qui  sont  de  grant  value: 
Vien  voir  la  paix  en  France  descendue: 
Vien  voir  Francois,  nostre  Roy  et  le  tien, 
Qui  a  la  France  orn6e  et  deff endue: 
Vien  voir  le  monde  ou  y  a  tant  de  bien. 

Vien  voir  le  monde  ou  y  a  tant  de  maux: 
Vien  voir  ton  pere  en  proces  et  en  peine: 
Vien  voir  ta  mere  en  douleurs  et  travaux 
Plus  grands  que  quand  elle  estoit  de  toy  pleine: 
Vien  voir  ta  mere  a  qui  n'as  laiss£  veine 
En  bon  repos:  vien  voir  ton  pere  aussi, 
Qui  a  pass6  sa  jeunesse  soudaine, 
Et  a  trente  ans  est  en  peine  et  souci. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  337. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  92:  A  Franfoyse  Fontaine,  petite  fitte  de  I'auteur. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  123 

Jan,  petit  Jan,  vien  voir  ce  tant  beau  monde, 
Ce  del  d'azur,  ces  estoilles  luisantes, 
Ce  soleil  d'or,  cette  grand  terre  ronde, 
Cette  ample  mer,  ces  rivieres  bruyantes, 
Ce  bel  air  vague,  et  ces  nues  courantes, 
Ces  beaux  oyseaux  qui  chantent  a  plaisir, 
Ces  poissons  frais  et  ces  bestes  paissantes: 
Vien  voir  le  tout  a  souhait  et  desir. 

Vien  voir  le  tout  sans  desir  et  souhait : 
Vien  voir  le  monde  en  divers  troublemens: 
Vien  voir  le  ciel  qui  ja  la  terre  bait: 
Vien  voir  combat  entre  les  elemens: 
Vien  voir  1'air  plein  de  rudes  soufflemens, 
De  dure  gresle  et  d'horribles  tonnerres: 
Vien  voir  la  terre  en  peine  et  tremblemens: 
Vien  voir  la  mer  noyant  villes  et  terres. 

Enfant  petit,  petit  et  bel  enfant, 
Masle  bien  fait,  chef  d'ceuvre  de  ton  pere, 
Enfant  petit  en  beaute  triomphant, 
La  grand  liesse  et  joye  de  ta  mere, 
Le  ris,  1'esbat  de  ma  jeune  commere, 
Et  de  ton  pere  aussi  certainement 
Le  grand  espoir  et  1'attente  prospere, 
Tu  sois  venu  au  monde  eureusement. 

Petit  enfant,  peux  tu  le  bien  venu 
Estre  sur  terre,  ou  tu  n'apportes  rien, 
Mais  ou  tu  viens  comme  un  petit  ver  nu  ? 
Tu  n'as  ne  drap  ne  linge  qui  soit  tien, 
Or,  ny  argent,  n'aucun  bien  terrien: 
A  pere  et  mere  apportes  seulement 
Peine  et  souci:  et  voila  tout  ton  bien: 
Petit  enfant  tu  viens  bien  povrement. 

De  ton  honneur  ne  vueil  plus  estre  chiche: 

Petit  enfant  de  grand  bien  jouissant, 

Tu  viens  au  monde  aussi  grand,  aussi  riche 

Comme  le  Roy,  et  aussi  florissant: 

Ton  tresorier  c'est  Dieu  le  tout  puissant, 

Grace  divine  est  ta  mere  nourrice, 

Ton  heritage  est  le  ciel  splendissant, 

Tes  serviteurs  sont  les  anges  sans  vice.1 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  55.    Concerning  Jean,  the  only  one  of  Fontaine's  children 
who  published  anything,  see  Appendix. 


124  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Another  poem,  fLlegie  seur  le  trespas  de  Rene,  cinquiesme  enfant 
et  tiers  filz  de  Vauteur,  is  also  of  considerable  merit: 

Dieu  te  gard  done,  mon  petit  filz  Ren6, 

A  Dieu  mon  filz  aussi  tost  mort  que  n6: 

Dieu  gard  mon  filz  venant  sur  terre  ronde, 

A  Dieu  mon  filz  dSpartant  de  ce  monde. 

Tu  n'as  encor  le  laict  bien  savour£, 

Tu  n'as  encor  le  tien  pere  honore, 

Ne  seu  que  c'est  de  maux  et  de  liesses, 

Que  loing  de  nous  tu  t'en  vas  et  nous  laisses. 

Tu  n'as  encor  une  seule  sepmaine, 

Que  tu  depars  de  ceste  vie  humaine. 

Pourquoy  fais  tu  ton  dernier  partement 

Si  tost  apres  le  tien  enfantement  ? 

Petit  enfant,  qui  t'a  donne  envie 

De  si  soudain  aller  en  1'autre  vie  ? 

II  semble  a  voir  que  tu  cogneusses  bien 

Qu'en  ceste  vie  y  a  petit  de  bien, 

Done  as  choisi  les  grans  joyes  celestes 

Pour  de  ce  monde  6viter  les  molestes. 

Petit  enfant,  je  croy  bien  que  tu  as 

Un  autre  pere  au  ciel,  la  ou  tu  vas, 

Lequel  a  fait  que  ton  coeur  le  desire, 

Quand  le  charnel  laisses  pour  1'autre  elire. 

Petit  enfant,  qui  n'as  gueres  tete, 

Je  ne  croy  point  que  tu  n'eusses  goust6 

Du  laict  celeste  au  moins  deux  ou  trois  gouttes, 

Quand  tu  t'en  vas  afin  que  plus  en  goustes. 

Puis  que  tu  veux  Peternel  bien  choisir, 

Laisse  m'en  as  un  merveilleux  d6sir. 

O  mon  enfant,  qui  as  vie  tant  brieve, 

La  mienne,  estant  moyenne,  m'est  ja  grieve: 

Et  si  te  dy  qu'a  1'exemple  de  toy 

Me  tarde  bien  que  mon  Dieu  je  ne  voy.1 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  53.  Compare  a  Latin  poem  by  Jean  de  Boyssonng  on  the 
death  of  Rabelais's  son:  Ad  Theodulum  Rabaloesum,  puerum  bimulum  morientem. 
Translation:  "  Pourquoi,  petit  Rabelais,  nous  quitter  sitdt  ?  Ne  veux-tu  pas  gouter 
les  joies  de  la  vie  ?  Pourquoi  pars-tu  avant  la  tendre  jeunesse  ?  Pourquoi  vas-tu 
p6rir  d'une  mort  prgmaturee  ?  "  To  which  the  child  replies:  "  Je  ne  meurs  pas  en 
haine  de  la  vie;  mais  pour  ne  pas  mourir  a  chaque  instant.  Je  veux,  Boyssonn6, 
vivre  avec  le  Christ,  c'est  la  seule  vie  qui  ait  du  prix  "  (Francois  Mugnier,  La  Vie  et 
les  poesies  de  Jean  de  Boyssonne,  Paris,  1897,  pp.  412-413).  Theodule  died  about 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  125 

A  short  time  before  the  composition  of  the  elegy  on  the  death  of 
Rene,  Fontaine  published  two  books  —  a  volume  of  verse  and  a 
prose  translation.1  The  volume  of  verse  bears  the  following  title : 
Estreines  a  certains  seigneurs  et  dames  de  Lyon  .  .  .  A  quoy  est 
adjouste  un  chant  nuptial  de  Vautheur,  faict  et  presente  pour  les 
nopces  de  Monsieur  le  Conseiller  Torveon  et  Madame  Magdeleine 
du  Peyrat.  Ensemble  une  eclogue  pastorale  sur  les  nopces  de 
I'autheur,  a  luy  addressee  et  faicte  par  un  sien  amy,  poete  et  adwcat 
de  Paris?  The  estreines  are  execrable.3  The  same  is  true  of  the 
chant  nuptial  in  honor  of  the  marriage  of  Torveon.  Like  some 
of  Fontaine's  other  works,  the  Estreines  is  of  value  only  as  a 
historical  document.4 

The  translation  published  by  Fontaine,  which  comprises  three 
of  the  five  books  of  Artemidorus's  'Ompo/cpmKo,  is  entitled 
Epitome  des  trois  premiers  limes  de  Artemidorus,  ancien  autheur, 
traictant  des  songes.5  It  is  worthy  of  attention,  not  because  of 
the  merit  of  the  work  translated,  but  because  of  the  curious 

1  The  Fontaine  d' amour  (1545),  which  was  also  published  about  this  time,  will  be 
discussed  in  chapter  vm. 

2  Jean  de  Tournes,  Lyons,  1546.    Denys  Sauvage  composed  the  Eclogue  pastorale 
(cf.  p.  54,  above). 

3  The  estreines  consist  mainly  of  puns  on  the  names  of  the  persons  addressed. 
For  example,  Barthelemy  Aneau,  one  of  the  most  important  men  of  the  French 
Renaissance,  is  honored  thus: 

L'anneau  que  Ton  met  a  la  joincte 
N'est  point  tant  uny  a  moytie' 
Comme  est  (Amy)  ton  amytie 
A  tes  amys  unie  et  joincte. 

Fontaine  was  evidently  aware  of  the  mediocrity  of  the  collection.    To  the  reader  he 
says: 

Si  le  mien  stile  ne  te  plait, 

N'en  ly  qu'un  quatrain  settlement: 

La  feras  fin  facilement. 

Si  tu  fais  fin  ne  m'en  desplalt. 

4  For  a  complete  list  of  the  persons  addressed  in  the  Estreines,  see  Bibliography, 
A,  no.  6. 

6  Jean  de  Tournes,  Lyons,  1546.  —  Artemidorus  Daldianus  lived  in  the  second 
century.  His  work  on  the  interpretation  of  dreams  is  quite  like  the  dream  books  of 
the  present  day. 


126  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

ideas  to  be  found  in  the  prefaces  and  epistles  that  Fontaine 
inserted  in  the  volume.1 

The  dedicatory  epistle  2  "  a  quelque  personnage  d'authorite," 
whom  Fontaine  had  known  in  Italy,  opens  with  a  reference  to 
several  works  which  Fontaine  lost  during  his  travels,  his  illnesses, 
and  his  business  cares.  Maitre  Charles  explains  that  he  intends 
to  make  only  an  epitome  of  a  portion  of  the  'Ompo/cpm/cd,  and 
that  he  has  expunged  any  parts  of  the  original  that  seemed  un- 
suitable, superfluous,  or  antiquated.3  He  then  begins  a  discourse 
on  dreams,  their  connection  with  the  events  of  life,  and  the  trust 
that  may  be  put  in  them  as  prognostications.  It  will  be  observed 
that  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  dream  interpretation,  and  that  he 
adduces  many  proofs  to  uphold  his  belief.4 

In  the  first  place,  he  observes,  the  superior  beings  in  this  world, 
"  ou  plustost  Dieu  mesmes,"  have  complete  control  over  the 
inferior  beings,  and  it  is  more  than  likely  that  dreams  are  in- 
tended by  God  to  impart  to  man  information  that  could  not  be 

1  In  the  dedicatory  epistle  Fontaine  says  that  he  made  his  translation  of  Artemi- 
dorus  not  from  the  Greek,  but  from  a  Latin  translation  "  par  un  scavant  m6decin 
et  philosophe."  This  physician  and  philosopher  was  Johann  Hagenbut,  called 
Cornarius  (1500-1558),  editions  of  whose  Latin  translation  of  Artemidorus  were 
published  at  Bale  in  1539  and  J544>  and  at  Lyons  in  1546. 

*  Cf .  Colletet,  Vies  des  poetes  fran^ois:  "  II  ne  se  peut  gufcre  rien  voir  de  plus  beau 
ni  de  plus  curieux  a  savoir  que  son  gpltre  liminaire,  qui  est  en  effet  un  docte  discours 
de  la  cause  et  de  la  nature  des  songes  .  .  .  L'6pltre  n'est  pas  un  frontispice  indigne 
de  ce  superbe  palais  du  dieu  de  sommeil  Morphe'e." 

8  "  Je  vous  avois  dernierement  promis  de  rechercher  mon  Translat  de  Duel, 
autrement  combat,  que  je  fey  estant  avec  vous  a  Thurin,  a  fin  que,  1'ayant  reveu,  le 
feisse  imprimer  avec  l'6pistre  liminaire  adressant  a  vous:  mais  apres  avoir  diligem- 
ment  tournd  et  revir6  mes  livres  et  copies  ne  1'ay  oncques  peu  trouver,  dont  j'ay  este" 
bien  fache.  Comme  ce  n'est  le  premier  de  mes  labeurs  que  j'ay  perdu  entre  tant 
d'allees  et  de  venues,  tant  de  maladies  et  d'affaires.  Or  ce  nonobstant,  des  lors  je 
pensay  de  vous  faire  present  d'un  autre  transkt  que  je  ferois  tout  de  nouveau,  a  fin 
que  par  ce  congnoissiez  la  perseverance  de  mon  vouloir  envers  vous.  .  .  Car  ce  que 
j'ay  veu  qui  ne  convenoit  a  nostre  temps,  et  qui  n'estoit  n6cessaire,  je  1'ay  kiss6: 
ainsi  que  sont  plusieurs  superstitions  des  payens  qui  seroient  ridicules  a  present."  — 
In  a  passage  that  follows  Fontaine  mentions  a  work,  "  mon  Transkt  de  la  Chiro- 
mance,"  of  which  no  trace  can  now  be  found. 

4  Concerning  credulity  in  the  sixteenth  century,  see  Philarete  Chasles,  Nostrada- 
mus et  ses  commentaieurs,  in  Etudes  sur  le  seizieme  siecle  en  France,  pp.  325  ff. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  127 

obtained  otherwise,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  God  and 
nature  do  nothing  without  a  cause.  After  a  few  remarks  on 
Artemidorus,  he  sets  forth  further  reasons  why  he  has  faith  in 
dreams  and  also  in  Artemidorus.  While  in  Italy  he  dreamed  of 
divers  matters  connected  with  his  personal  affairs,  and  upon  his 
return  to  France,  he  found  the  outcome  just  as  Artemidorus 
promised.1  He  cites  Ovid,  Cato,  and  Plato's  Republic  in  support  of 
some  of  his  statements,  and  then  mentions  a  number  of  celebrated 
dreamers:  in  the  Bible  the  two  Josephs  are  noteworthy,  "Joseph, 
filz  de  Jacob,  Joseph,  espoux  de  la  vierge  Marie;  "  in  the  "  his- 
toires  humaines  "  no  less  remarkable  examples  may  be  cited:  the 
mother  of  Virgil  dreamed  of  a  laurel  tree;  the  mother  of  Paris 
dreamed  that  she  gave  birth  to  a  firebrand  which  set  fire  to  the 
entire  country;  in  a  dream  Socrates  saw  a  flying  swan,  and  on  the 
following  day  Plato  arrived;  and,  in  addition,  Astyages,  Philip  of 
Macedon,  Cicero,  Hannibal,  Calpurnia,  Scipio,  and  many  others 
might  be  mentioned.  Not  to  believe  what  these  renowned  men 
and  women  have  declared  to  be  true,  says  Maitre  Charles,  would 
be  doing  an  injustice  "  a  1'esprit  de  1'homme,  qui  est  .  .  .  le 
miroir  des  choses  divines :  en  le  f aisant  tousjours  et  du  tout  inutil, 
vagabond,  vain  et  oysif,  quand  le  corps  repose."  2  The  dedica- 
tory epistle  closes  with  a  compliment  to  Francis  I. 

A  passage  in  the  preface  to  the  second  book  will  serve  to  give 
an  idea  of  Fontaine's  reverence  for  the  writers  of  antiquity: 

Ayant  tousjours  esgard  que  sans  grande  necessite  je  n'emprunterois  rien 
des  anciens.  Et  ne  delaissant  aucune  chose  qui  vient  au  propos,  sinon  qu'il  y 
eust  telle  chose  qui  eust  este  bien  traictee  et  doctement  par  les  anciens,  au 
moyen  de  quoy  n'estoit  besoing  que  j'en  traictasse.  A  fin  qu'en  leur  voulant 
contredire,  je  ne  fusse  contraint  de  mentir.  Ou  en  disant  comme  eulx,  je 
semblasse  vouloir  empescher  leurs  oeuvres  et  labeurs  de  venir  en  congnois- 
sance.* 

1  "  J'ay  m6moire  de  avoir  song6  estant  avecques  vous  deli  les  montz,  depuis 
aussi  a  Ferrare  et  a  Venise,  certains  songes  concernans  mes  affaires,"  etc. 

2  Concerning  physicians,  Fontaine  says:     "  Les  m6decins  aussi  font  cas  des 
songes,  car  par  iceulx  jugent  et  cognoissent  quelquefois  la  qualit6  et  quantit6  des 
humeurs  qui  dominent,  la  source  et  cause,  briefvet£  et  longueur  des  maladies." 

*  Fontaine  says  that  in  his  study  of  the  literature  dealing  with  dreams  he  has 


128  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  an  epistle  addressed  to  his  cousin  Jean  Bureau,  Fontaine 
cites  a  specific  case  in  which  Artemidorus  was  of  assistance  to 
him: 

Plus  de  quatre  et  cinq  moys  devant  que  ma  Fleurie  m'eust  faict  mon  filz 
Gaspard,  qui  est  seul  et  premier  d'elle  et  de  moy,  j'ay  .  .  .  songe  que  je 
voyais  un  arbre  de  meurier  portant  les  meures. 

Artemidorus  says: 

Un  meurier  droit  et  portant  fruict,  c'est  generation  et  lignSe  .  .  .  Je 
pensois  que  Dieu  me  feroit  la  grace  d'avoir  de  ma  femme  qui  estoit  enceinte 
enfant  qui  vivroit,  et  non  pas  comme  ma  fille  qui  mourut  a  sa  naissance. 

Fontaine's  epitome  of  the  first  three  books  of  Artemidorus's 
dream  book  had  a  decided  success.  The  edition  found  so  great 
favor  with  the  public  that  in  1554  Fontaine  and  his  friends 
found  it  impossible  to  secure  a  single  copy.  This  dearth  of  copies, 
together  with  the  fact  that  a  Parisian  printer  (Jeanne  de  Marnef , 
1547)  had  foisted  upon  the  public  a  defective  edition,  led  Fon- 
taine to  entrust  to  his  friend  Jean  de  Tournes  the  publication  of  a 
new  edition.  To  meet  the  demand  for  such  literature,  he  added 
an  epitome  of  the  two  remaining  books  of  the  'Owpo/cpiruA,  and 
also  an  epitome  of  a  treatise  on  dreams  by  Valerius  Maximus.1 

examined  the  writings  of  the  authors  of  Greece,  Asia,  Italy,  and  "  les  Isles  fameuses 
et  peuple'es."  —  In  an  epistle  inscribed  to  "  monsieur  maistre  Frangois  Verius, 
chanoine  de  Mascon,"  he  explains  as  follows  why  he  undertook  the  translation  of 
the  second  book  of  Artemidorus:  "  Tu  [Verius]  m'as  incitfi  grandement  avec 
maistre  Antoine  du  Moulin,  maistre  Claude  du  Four,  et  maistre  Odoart  le  Verrier  et 
autres,  J\  fin  que  je  poursuyvisse  ceste  traduction  et  £pitom6,  ayans  sceu  que  j'avois 
j{\  faict  I'6pitom6  et  traduction  du  premier  livre."  In  the  same  epistle  he  tells 
Verius  that  scoffers  cannot  prevent  him  from  being  a  dreamer  and  a  believer  in 
dreams:  "  Et  ne  m'estonne  point  leur  blason  et  mocquerie,  car  je  suis  content 
d'estre  mocqud  et  estimfi  resveur  ou  songeur  avec  le  gentil  petit  Joseph,  filz  de 
Jacob." 

1  Most  of  these  facts  are  set  forth  in  an  epistle  to  Jean  Gravier,  secretary  of  the 
city  of  Lyons.  In  the  same  epistle  Fontaine  compliments  a  contemporary  author  of 
a  Latin  treatise  on  dreams:  "  Encores  depuis  mon  6pitom6  des  trois  premiers 
livres,  Oger  Ferrier,  me'decin  de  Toulouze,  ha  fait  un  traitd  des  songes  en  latin  fort 
bien  couchg  et  d6duit:  et  lequel  ha  est6  imprim6  par  le  mesme  imprimeur,  Jan  de 
Tournes,  avec  encor  autres  certeins  petis  traitez  beaus  et  excellens,  faits  par  divers 
auteurs,  i  savoir  Hippocrate,  Galien,  et  Synese,  traitans  de  mesme  matiere,  que  j'ay 
est6  quelquefois  en  fantasie  de  traduire  de  latin  en  francois." 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  129 

The  success  of  the  Epitome  des  cinq  livres  d1  Artemidore  was 
remarkable.  It  was  published  separately  four  times,  and  seven 
times  in  the  same  volume  with  Augustinus  Niphus,  Des  Augur es 
ou  divinations,  traduict  par  maistre  Antoine  du  Moulin,  Mascon- 
nois.1  The  widespread  popularity  of  dream  books  in  France  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  is  attested  by  the  fact 
that  these  editions  were  published  in  Lyons,  Rouen,  Paris,  and 
Troyes.2 

About  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  Epitome  des  trois 
premiers  livres  de  Artemidorus,  Fontaine  became  involved  in  the 
lawsuit  of  which  he  makes  mention  in  the  poem  in  honor  of  the 
birth  of  his  son  Jean.  In  an  epistle  to  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  he 
says  that  the  origin  of  the  suit  was  connected  in  some  way  with 
the  death  of  his  first  wife,  Marguerite  Carme : 

Je  pensois  bien,  pour  raison  du  proces 
Que  tu  as  sceu  que  j'ay  par  le  deces 
De  feu  ma  femme,  a  Paris  voyager.8 

The  case  was  tried  first  at  Lyons,  where,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of 
Fontaine's  attorney,  M.  Guillot,  a  decision  was  rendered  in  favor 
of  Fontaine.4  His  opponents,  however,  were  not  satisfied  with 
this  decision,  and  appealed  to  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  Fontaine 
made  preparations  to  go  to  the  capital  to  defend  his  interests: 

1  Concerning  this  work,  and  also  concerning  Fontaine's  friend  Antoine  du  Mou- 
lin, see  an  article  by  A.  Cartier  and  A.  Cheneviere  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la 
France,  1895,  p.  469,  and  1896,  pp.  90  and  218.    The  first  edition  of  Agostino  Nifo's 
De  Auguriis  libri  duo  was  published  at  Bologna  in  1531. 

2  The  first  edition  was  published  in  1555,  the  last  in  1664.  —  That  Guillaume 
des  Autelz  appreciated  Fontaine's  epitome  of  Artemidorus  is  shown  by  a  poem,  A 
Charles  Fontaine,  d'un  songe,  which  begins  as  follows: 

Est  done  ce  songe  un  celeste  message 

(O  toy  qui  as  1'ame  d'Art6midore) 

M'avertissant  que  pour  voir  ma  Pandore 

Infortune  me  sera  ce  voyage  ? 

(Amoureux  repos  de  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  Lyons,  1553,  fol.  B  vii.) 
*  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  235. 
4  Estreines,  p.  8:  L'Autheur  d  M.  Guillot,  son  advocat. 


130  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Ores  je  suis  sur  point  de  partement, 
Pour  saluer  le  hautain  Parlement, 
Duquel  1'arrest  j'espere  et  je  desire 
Dedans  le  mars:  mais  qu'il  ne  me  soit  pire 
Que  la  sentence  a  est6  par  dega, 
Que  le  conseil  a  mon  profit  dressa.1 

Upon  setting  out  for  Paris,  Fontaine  penned  an  adieu  to  Lyons, 
his  friends,  his  wife  and  child: 

Adieu  Lyon,  la  clef  de  France, 
Abondant  en  toute  plaisance: 
Adieu  Lyon,  dont  je  depars: 
Adieu  amis  de  toutes  pars. 
Adieu  mon  seul  filz  et  sa  mere: 
Priez  a  Dieu  qui  gard  le  pere. 
Adieu  les  dames  de  Lyon, 
Et  des  atours  un  milion  .  .  . 
Adieu  le  Rosne,  adieu  la  Sa6ne, 
Qu'eussiez  vous  le  sable  d'or  jaune 
Comme  le  beau  fleuve  Tagus. 
Adieu  les  yeux  fins  et  agus, 
Adieu  les  beaux  tetins  ouvers, 
Adieu  les  colz  tous  descouvers: 
Adieu  veloux  et  fine  soye, 
Adieu  jusques  je  te  revoye  .  .  .2 

Upon  his  arrival  in  Paris,  Maitre  Charles  greeted  the  city  with 
a  Dieu  gard  which  contains  many  interesting  details  relating  to 
himself  and  especially  to  Paris.  It  will  be  observed  that  he  had  a 
deep  affection  for  the  bustling  city  —  "  the  great  paradise  of 
women,"  —  for  the  Ville,  the  Universite,  and  the  Cite.  As  a 
pleader,  he  saw  fit  to  pay  his  compliments  to  Parliament,  the 
protector  of  the  oppressed: 

Dieu  gard  Paris,  le  chef  de  France, 
Qui  est  le  lieu  de  ma  naissance: 
Dieu  gard  Paris,  puis  que  ma,  veue' 
Depuis  sept  ans  ne  1'avoit  veue  .  .  . 
Dieu  gard  Paris,  en  communs  dictz, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  235:  epistle  to  Des  Autelz. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  61 :  L' Adieu  d  ladite  viUe,  ou  I'auleur  avoit  prinsfemme,  el  pour  un  sien 
proces  s'en  attoit  d  Paris  Van  1547. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  131 

Des  femmes  le  grant  paradis. 

Dieu  gard  Paris,  entre  dix  mille 

La  grande,  longue  et  large  ville. 

Dieu  gard  le  plus  hault  Parlement, 

Jugeant  tant  equitablement 

Qu'il  est  par  sus  tout  autre  juge, 

Des  oppressez  le  vray  refuge. 

Dieu  gard  la  ville  et  la  cit6, 

Et  la  haulte  universite, 

Vray  mont  d'Helicon,  ou  les  Muses 

Sont  copieuses  et  diffuses, 

Ou  maint  bon  esprit  me  semond  .  .  . 

Dieu  gard  les  pontz:  Dieu  gard  encore 

Les  longs  fauxbourgs  pres  des  villages: 

Dieu  gard  les  beaux  grans  heritages. 

Dieu  gard  sainct  Denis  et  Montmartre: 

Et  de  sainct  Valeri  le  tertre  .  .  . 

0  quel  desplaisir  mon  coeur  sent 

Que  je  ne  puis  dire  a  present 

Dieu  gard  mon  pere  avec  ma  mere, 

Dieu  gard  ma  soeur,  Dieu  gard  mon  frere  .  .  .* 

Dieu  gard  la  riviere  bien  pleine, 

C'est  a  savoir  la  belle  Seine  .  .  . 

Dieu  gard  de  plus  grande  mine 

Le  pont  sainct  Michel  qui  decline. 

Dieu  me  gard  de  beaucoup  troter, 

Je  pourrois  bien  trop  me  croter: 

Dieu  me  gard  que  mon  long  proces 

Voye  deux  foys  sol  en  Pisces.2 

Once  settled  in  Paris,  Fontaine  strove  to  win  the  favor  of  the 
legal  fraternity.  To  registrars,  lawyers,  and  magistrates  he 
addressed  a  great  number  of  flattering  verses,  very  few  of  which 
have  a  direct  bearing  on  his  lawsuit.3  Upon  learning  that  a 
magistrate  named  De  Gouy  was  to  judge  his  case,  he  wrote: 

Si  l'6quite  est  la  fille  de  Dieu, 

Et  1'equite  en  ma  cause  est  aperte, 

Dieu  est  pour  moy  en  ce  temps  et  ce  lieu: 

S'il  est  pour  moy,  je  ne  viendray  a  perte: 

Car  ta  science  a  juger  bien  experte, 

1  Fontaine  makes  no  other  mention  of  his  brother. 

2  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  62.  8  Ibid.,  passim. 


132  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Et  conscience  au  droit  point  immobile, 
Voyant  ma  cause  en  I'6quit6  ouverte, 
N'iroyent  jamais  centre  Dieu  et  sa  fille.1 

Maitre  Charles  also  had  a  word  of  praise  for  Eustache  de  la 
Porte,  "  conseiller  au  Parlement  de  Paris,  quand  le  proces  de 
1'auteur  luy  fut  distribue  pour  rapporter."  2 

A  quatrain  addressed  some  seven  years  later  to  Eustache  de  la 
Porte  seems  to  indicate  that  the  verdict  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
was  in  Fontaine's  favor: 

Dieu  gard  la  Porte  toute  ouverte, 
Qui  en  un  pas  fort  difficile 
Me  tira  hors  de  peine  et  perte, 
Me  montrant  la  voye  facile.8 

Fontaine's  lawsuit  bears  eloquent  testimony  to  the  law's  delay 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  caricatures  drawn  by  writers  of  the 
time  may  not  seem  so  exaggerated  when  it  is  known  that  Maitre 
Charles,  surely  a  sufficiently  needy  litigant  to  be  granted  a  speedy 
trial,  was  forced  to  remain  in  Paris  at  least  six  months  before  his 
case  was  brought  to  a  close.  Naturally,  he  was  not  pleased  with 
such  dilatory  methods;  he  longed  to  return  to  his  wife: 

Dedans  Paris  six  moys  tardant, 
Je  suys  sans  toy  et  avec  moy: 
Dedans  Lyon  en  m'attendant, 
Tu  es  sans  moy  et  avec  toy.4 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  105:  Au  President  De  Couy. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  119. 

9  Les  Nouvelles  el  antiques  merveilles:  Ode  four  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de  Paris. 
An  epigram  inscribed  later  to  Eustache  de  la  Porte  shows,  however,  that  the  verdict 
at  Paris  did  not  end  the  suit: 

Je  suis  entre  dedans  un  labirynte 
Long  et  f acheux,  dont  je  ne  puis  sortir  .  .  . 
Et  en  neuf  ans  onq  je  n'ay  peu  partir 
Du  labirynte  obscui  et  difficile. 

(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  120.) 

4  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  117.  —  It  is  likely  that  Fontaine,  who  was  as  true  a  friend  as 
he  was  a  faithful  husband  and  father,  suffered  a  painful  humiliation  at  the  tune 
when  poverty  and  legal  proceedings  were  harassing  him.    If  the  following  dizain 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  133 

After  his  return  from  Paris  to  Lyons,  Fontaine  was  reduced  to 
great  financial  straits.  His  lawsuit  and  the  support  of  his  con- 
stantly increasing  family  seem  to  have  consumed  his  entire 
savings.  His  income  from  his  literary  productions  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  meet  the  needs  of  life.  In  an  epistle  to  a  friend,  Gabriel 
Tamot,  he  says  that  his  career  has  not  been  lucrative: 

Mais  po£sie  affamee  et  en  friche 

N'a,  ce  dis  tu,  point  fait  ta  maison  riche: 

Aussi  n'a  elle  encore  fait  a  moy: 

Et  ce  seul  point  ne  me  met  en  esmoy, 

Car  le  desir  d'un  poete  n'attend 

Avoir  richesse,  ou  tout  autre  estat  tend.1 

In  a  poem  addressed  to  a  detractor,  Fontaine  repeats  that 
poetry  has  not  made  him  rich,  and  also  tells  what  became  of  a 
part  of  his  patrimony: 

Tu  dis  ma  Muse  sans  esprit, 
Puis  que  ne  s'est  peu  faire  riche: 
Mon  bien  pater nel  elle  prit, 
Qu'elle  mit  en  partie  en  friche: 
Et  d'autre  part  je  ne  fus  chiche 
Ny  a  parens,  ny  a  amis, 
Ny  mesmes  a  mes  ennemis: 
J'ay  toutesfois,  et  sauf  ta  grace, 
Plus  que  toy,  ny  toute  ta  race 
Obscure,  incongnue  a  tousjours, 
J'ay  un  bien  qui  tous  les  biens  passe, 
Et  qui  croistra  apres  mes  jours.2 

may  be  considered  as  applying  to  the  author's  own  case,  it  is  evident  that  his 
friends  of  better  days  turned  their  backs  on  him  in  his  adversity: 

Quand  on  est  en  autorit6, 

Rempli  d'honneur  et  de  richesse, 

Tant  d'amis  de  prospe'rite' 

Nous  font  compaignie  et  caresse: 

Mais  si  tost  que  richesse  cesse, 

Et  que  fortune  nous  aracine 

Prison,  proces,  povret6,  peine, 

Et  tous  maux  sus  nous  manifeste, 

O  que  c'est  tres  mauvaise  alaine: 

Chacun  nous  fuit  comme  la  peste. 

(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  106.) 

The  word  "  prison  "  is  suggestive. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  273.  2  Ibid.,  p.  80. 


134  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  Fontaine's  works  there  is  considerable  evidence  not  only 
that  he  did  not  grow  rich  in  his  profession,  but  that  on  the  con- 
trary he  sounded  the  depths  of  the  direst  poverty.  In  a  huitain 
addressed  to  the  Baron  de  1'Espinasse  he  pictures  himself  ram- 
bling through  the  Baron's  library  and  deriving  great  joy  from  the 
treasures  contained  therein.  Then  follows  the  regret  that  he 
cannot  have  books  through  lack  of  money: 

Revisitant  vostre  grand  librairie 
(Seigneur  baron)  mon  esprit  eut  grand  joye: 
Mais  puis  apres,  entrant  en  facherie, 
fl  commenca  cheminer  autre  voye: 
Et  c'est  pourtant  que  fortune  convoye 
Mon  esprit  prompt  d'un  regard  de  travers, 
Et  que  ne  puis,  par  faulte  de  monnoye, 
Livres  avoir,  soit  en  prose  ou  en  vers.1 

In  an  Eclogue  marine,  an  extremely  melancholy  poem,  Maitre 
Charles  revealed  the  fact  that  his  financial  condition  was  such 
that  he  felt  it  necessary  to  call  upon  the  king  for  assistance,  and 
that  in  case  the  king  refused  his  plea,  death  alone  could  cure  his 
ills.2 

When  Fontaine  finally  became  convinced  that  it  was  impossible 
to  make  both  ends  meet  with  his  pen,  he  decided  to  engage  in 
another  pursuit  —  a  pursuit  that  carried  with  it  a  fixed  stipend 
and  did  not  depend  entirely  on  the  whims  of  the  public.3  The 
printing  and  publishing  trade  attracted  him.  Many  of  his  friends 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  72.  —  Although  Fontaine  could  not  afford  to  buy  books  for 
himself,  he  managed  to  get  them  when  it  was  a  question  of  making  gifts: 

Moy  povret,  aux  gens  de  scavoir 
J'ay  bien  donne  deux  fois  cent  livres, 
N'espargnant  mon  petit  avoir, 
Mon  pouvoir,  mes  vivres,  mes  livres. 

(Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone,  p.  60.) 

*  A  summary  of  ih&JLdogue  marine  is  given  on  p.  193,  below.  —  M.  Lucien  Bau- 
drier  very  kindly  sent  me  the  following  note  concerning  Fontaine's  financial  condi- 
tion: "  Si  Ton  en  juge  par  le  chiffre  minimum  auquel  il  a  6t6  impost  dans  une  taxe, 
dont  malheureusement  je  n'ai  pas  conservd  la  cote,  Charles  Fontaine  devait  fitre 
dans  une  situation  p6cuniaire  des  plus  modestes." 

s  Fontaine  published  nothing  between  the  years  1546  and  1552. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  135 

were  successful  printers,  publishers,  and  booksellers.  Scattered 
throughout  his  works  are  numerous  poems  in  honor  of  Thibaud 
Payen,  Guillaume  Roville  or  Rouille,  Philibert  Rollet,  Jean 
Citoys,  Sebastien  Gryphe,  and  Jean  de  Tournes.  The  last 
named,  perhaps  the  most  renowned  of  Lyonese  printers,  Maitre 
Charles  especially  admired: 

Tout  ton  faict  si  bien  tu  atournes 
En  ton  art,  et  d'un  esprit  meur, 
Que  si  voulois  estre  imprimeur, 
Je  vouldrois  estre  Jean  de  Tournes.1 

Fontaine  had  great  admiration  for  printing  as  an  art  and  as  a 
means  of  dissipating  the  shades  of  ignorance: 

Si  aux  scavants  on  doit  porter  honneur, 

On  doit  porter  honneur  a  vous  [imprimeurs]  aussi, 

Qui  aportez  au  monde  ce  bon  heur, 

Que  le  scavoir  est  par  vous  esclarcy, 

Lequel  sans  vous  est  obscur  et  noircy: 

Vous  1'avancez  et  luy  donnez  son  lustre. 

Parquoy  de  vous  je  doy  chanter  icy, 

O  gens  heureux!    O  art  noble  et  illustre! 2 

Thanks  to  a  discovery  made  by  President  Baudrier,  there  is 
documentary  evidence  that  Fontaine  entered  the  printing  trade 
as  a  proof-reader.  The  essential  part  of  the  document  in  question, 
the  interest  of  which  is  enhanced  somewhat  by  a  mention  of  two 
of  Marguerite  Carme's  brothers,  is  reproduced  below  as  pub- 
lished by  Baudrier: 3 

23  avril  1549.  Vente  faite  par  Charles  Fontaine,  pr&,ecteur  d'imprymerie,  a 
Lyon,  heritier  universel  de  feue  Marguerite  Carme,  sa  feue  femme,  et  cura- 
teur  de  Aym6  Carme,  frere  de  ladicte  Marguerite,  d'une  part,  et  Me  Jehan 
Bureau,4  notaire,  habitant  de  Tournus  en  Masconoys,  aiant  droict  de  trans- 

1  Estreines,  p.  14:  A  Jean  de  Tournes,  maistre  imprimeur. 

2  La  Fontaine  d'amour:  Aux  Compaignons  imprimeurs  de  la  mile  de  Paris. 

3  The  document  is  entitled  "  Requisition  d'une  pension  annuelle,  fonci&re,  et 
perp6tuelle  de  25  livres  pour  dame  Fleurie  Mayaulde,  femme  d'Ennemond  Polier, 
procureur  es  cours  de  Lyon."    The  entire  document  covers  a  half-dozen  folio  pages, 
and  is  an  excellent  example  of  legal  jargon. 

4  Fontaine's  cousin. 


136  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

port,  en  ceste  partie,  de  Jacques  Carme,  frere  desdits  Aym6  et  Marguerite 
Carme,  d'autre  part  .  .  .  pour  survenir  a  leurs  affaires  et  poursuyvre 
I'6x6cution  de  certains  arrestz  deffinitifs,  par  eulx  obtenu  ausdits  noms,  a 
1'encontre  de  feu  Me  Jehan  Mulct,  heritier  de  Anne  Grand,  sa  mere,  et  de 
Pernette  Bonnepain  comme  tutrice  de  Magdelleine  Gaulvain,  sa  fille,  aussi 
pour  eulx  acquitter  de  la  somme  de  cent  escuz  d'or  au  soleil,  en  laquelle  les- 
dits  Fontaine  et  Bureau  seroient  tenus  et  obliges  a  dame  Fleurie  Mayaulde,1 
femme  de  Me  Annemond  Polier,  procureur  es  cours  dudit  Lyon,  d'une 
pension  annuelle,  fonciere  et  perpetuelle  cedee  ausdits  Fontaine  et  Bureau 
par  Me  Jehan  Musselier,  tuteur  de  lad.  Magdelleyne  Gaulvain,  sur  une 
tierce  partie  de  maison  indivise  et  assize  audit  Lyon  en  la  grand  rue  Saint- 
Jehan.8 

In  1549  Maitre  Charles  entered  the  service  of  the  learned  Guil- 
laume  Roville,  one  of  the  most  famous  publishers  of  the  French 
Renaissance.3  An  edition  of  the  works  of  Clement  Marot  and  a 
translation  into  French  of  a  Latin  encyclopaedic  compilation  by 
Roville  show  that  Fontaine  performed  his  duties  in  a  satisfactory 
and  conscientious  manner. 

During  the  decade  that  followed  the  printing  of  the  (Euvres  of 
Marot  by  Sebastien  Gryphe  (1538),  scarcely  a  year  passed  with- 
out the  appearance  of  a  new  edition  of  Marot's  works.  At  Lyons, 
Jean  de  Tournes  and  Frangois  Juste,  and  at  Paris,  Gilles  Cor- 
rozet,  Guillaume  Thiboust,  Jean  Ruelle,  and  others  published 

1  Not  Florie-Marie  Jaulde,  as  Baudrier  reads. 

2  Bibliographic  lyonnaise,  3"  sdrie,  p.  93.     Concerning  Fontaine's  employers, 
M.  Baudrier  says  (9°  s^rie,  p.  30) :   "  Bien  que  sp€cialement  attach^  £  Patelier  de 
Payen,  £diteur  moins  Iettr6  que  ses  savants  confreres,  incapable  de  corriger  lui-meme 
toutes  ses  productions,  Fontaine  travailk,  en  meme  temps,  pour  plusieurs  ateliers. 
S.  Gryphius,  Th.  Payen,  Pierre  de  Tours,  Jean  de  Tournes  restent  muets  sur  ses 
bons  offices." 

3  Nearly  all  the  neuvieme  serie  of  the  Bibliographic  lyonnaise,  a  volume  of  five 
hundred  pages,  is  devoted  to  Guillaume  Roville.  —  After  citing  seven  quatrains 
addressed  by  Fontaine  to  Roville,  S.  Gryphe,  Benoist  Montaudoyn,  T.  Payen,  J.  de 
Tournes,  P.  Rollet,  and  Guillaume  Phylledier,  M.  Baudrier  says  (ibid.,  9*  s6rie, 
p.  29) :  "  Ces  quatrains  pr6cisent  le  cercle  des  relations  du  correcteur  d'imprimerie 
Charles  Fontaine  avec  les  6diteurs  et  les  imprimeurs  en  exercice  a  cette  date.   Quel- 
ques  minimes  que  soient  ses  attaches  a  Rouill£,  elles  n'en  sont  pas  moins  int£res- 
santes  a  constater.    S.  Gryphius  et  J.  de  Tournes  furent  ses  rivaux  et  ses  6mules, 
Th.  Payen  un  de  ses  premiers  associds,  Philibert  Rollet  un  de  ses  imprimeurs  pr6- 
feres."  —  Fontaine's  close  friend,  Denys  Sauvage,  was  also  employed  by  Roville  as 
a  "  correcteur  d'imprimerie  "  (ibid.,  ge  s£rie,  p.  182). 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  137 

volumes  of  Maitre  Clement's  verse  which  are  now  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  bibliophiles.  Not  to  be  outdone  by  his  competitors, 
Guillaume  Roville  published  in  1546  an  edition  of  Marot.  He 
did  not  adorn  the  title  page  of  his  edition  with  the  phrases  used  by 
his  predecessors,  such  as  "  bien  augmentees/'  "mieulx  ordonnees 
que  par  cy  devant,"  "  avec  plusieurs  autres  compositions  non 
jamais  encore  imprimees,"  and  his  reason  for  not  doing  so  is 
obvious :  as  the  first  part  of  his  edition  he  merely  reproduced  the 
volume  published  in  1544  "  A  Lyon,  a  1'enseigne  du  Rocher  "; l 
he  added  an  eclogue  on  the  death  of  the  Dauphin,  a  panegyric  in 
honor  of  Monseigneur  d'Anguyen,  Marot's  translations,  and  the 
Enfer,  and  his  volume  was  complete.2 

This  edition,  with  its  two  reprints,  must  have  proved  successful, 
since  in  1550  Roville  published  a  fourth  edition  of  Marot's  works: 
Les  (Euvres  de  Clement  Marot,  de  Cahors,  vallet  de  chambre  du  Roy, 
reveues  et  augmentees  de  nouveau.3  This  time  Roville  was  not  so 
modest;  his  fourth  edition  was  revised,  augmented,  and  in  other 
ways  made  more  valuable  than  the  first.  In  an  interesting  notice 
to  the  reader,  he  gives  the  editor  credit  for  most  of  the  changes 
in  the  new  edition.  With  true  Renaissance  spirit,  however, 
he  does  not  make  known  the  editor's  name,  but  any  doubts 
as  to  whom  he  has  in  mind  are  dispelled  when  we  read  on  the 
reverse  of  the  title  page  a  huitain,  A  la  louange  des  ceuvres  de 
Clement  Marot,  signed  with  Charles  Fontaine's  well-known 
anagram,  Hante  le  Franqois. 

1  Cf.  E.  Picot,  Catalogue  des  livres  de  la  bibliotheque  Rothschild,  vol.  i,  no.  609; 
Baudrier,  9e  sfirie,  p.  129.  —  In  1544  Antoine  Constantin,  "  demeurant  a  1'enseigne 
du  Rocher,"  and  Guillaume  Roville  entered  into  a  partnership,  which  seems  not  to 
have  continued  beyond  1549.    Constantin's  name  does  not  appear  in  Roville's  1546 
edition  of  Marot's  works. 

2  The  same  edition,  with  slight  modifications,  was  also  published  by  Roville  with 
1547  as  the  date  of  the  first  part,  and  1546  as  that  of  the  second  part.    In  the  first 
part  of  this  edition  even  the  preface  of  the  1544  "  Rocher  "  edition  is  reproduced. 
See  Picot,  vol.  i,  no.  612;  Baudrier,  9"  s6rie,  p.  138.    A  third  edition  was  published 
by  Roville  in  1548.    See  Baudrier,  9®  s6rie,  p.  146. 

3  Baudrier,  9°  s6rie,  p.  179.    This  edition  was  republished  several  times  by 
Roville. 


138  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  his  notice  to  the  reader,  Roville  praised  highly  his  former 
editions  of  Marot's  works  —  the  editions  reprinted  largely  from 
the  "  Rocher  "  edition.  He  even  had  the  assurance  to  speak  of 
the  improvements  he  had  made  in  the  arrangement  of  the  contents 
of  the  previous  editions  —  improvements  that  had  received,  so  he 
says,  the  sanction  of  competent  judges  and  had  been  copied  by 
rivals.  The  generous  reception  accorded  his  former  editions 
encouraged  him  to  publish  another.  Feeling,  however,  that  he 
was  not  quite  equal  to  the  task,  he  sought  the  aid  of  Marot's 
friends.  One  of  these  friends  [Fontaine],  "  expert  et  entendu 
en  la  poesie  francoise,"  was  in  particular  of  great  help  to  him. 
Not  only  did  he  render  assistance  by  his  counsel,  but  he  also 
offered,  "  pour  I'amitie  qu'il  avoit  porte  a  1'autheur,"  to  aid  in 
revising  and  rearranging  the  text  and  in  correcting  the  spelling 
and  punctuation.  In  addition,  this  friend,  says  Roville,  helped 
to  unearth  a  number  of  Marot's  epigrams  and  epistles.  Roville's 
notice  follows: 

Pource,  amis  lecteurs,  que  par  cy  devant  je  vous  avois  bailie  les  ceuvres  de 
Marot  assez  bien  ordonnees  et  comparties,  chacune  matiere  en  son  lieu,  non 
selon  ma  seule  opinion,  mais  selon  le  jugement  d'autres  mieux  entendus,  et 
que  j'ay  congneu  que  tel  ordre  a  este  bien  receu,  et  aussi  que  plusieurs  autres 
1'ont  suivy,  cela  m'a  donne  courage  d'essayer  de  mieux  faire  et  prier  les  amis 
de  1'autheur  de  m'y  aider:  a  Tun  desquelz  je  me  suis  adress6,  expert  et  en- 
tendu en  la  po£sie  francoise,  pour  avoir  advis  de  luy,  lequel  non  seulement 
m'en  a  donne  conseil,  mais  luy  mesmes  s'est  offert,  pour  I'amitie  qu'il  avoit 
porte  a  1'autheur,  de  m'aider  a  le  revoir  et  racoustrer  de  la  sorte,  comme  vous 
le  pourrez  voir  en  lisant,  qui  est  beaucoup  mieux  que  par  cy  devant,  tant  de 
1'orthographe  que  de  la  ponctuation,  et  autres  choses  dignes  d'estre  emen- 
dees.  Et  outre,  j'ay  recouvre,  partie  par  son  moyen,  partie  par  autres, 
aucunes  epistres  et  £pigrammes  de  1'autheur,  lesquelz  avons  joinctz  avec  les 
autres  sur  la  fin  d'iceulx,  chacun  en  son  rang.  Aussi  avons  aperceu  quelques 
6pigrammes  faictz  a  1'imitation  de  Martial  qui  estoient  meslez  avec  ceux  de 
son  invention,  comme  celuy  a  Geoffroy  Bruslard,  a  Benest,  a  Merlin  de 
Sainct  Gelais,  a  monsieur  Castellanus,  de  Marthi  et  de  Catin,  des  Poetes 
francois,  a  Salel,  lesquelz  avons  mis  en  leur  rang  avec  les  autres  faictz  aussi  a 
1'imitation  de  Martial,  qui  ont  est£  imprimez  par  cy  devant  a  part  et  hors  du 
corps  des  ceuvres:  lesquelz  tous  ensemble  avons  mis  incontinent  apres  les 
autres  6pigrammes  de  son  invention,  combien  qu'aucuns  pourroient  par 
aventure  dire  qu'ilz  eussent  mieux  este  avec  les  traductions:  mais  toutesfois, 
au  jugement  de  plusieurs,  seront  mieulx  en  cest  endroit,  mesmes  que  ce  n'est 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  139 

point  totalement  traduction,  avec  ce  que  ce  sont  toutes  matieres  plaisantes 
et  presque  toutes  d'une  couleur  et  suite.  Nous  avons  pareillement  mis  les 
Oraisons  apres  les  Pseaumes,  nous  semblant  chose  plus  convenante  que 
d'estre  au  lieu  ou  elJes  estoient  par  cy  devant,  aussi  que  la  pluspart  sont 
traductions.  Vous  trouverez  le  translat  des  deux  premiers  livres  de  la 
Metamorphose  orne  de  plusieurs  belles  figures1  appropriees  selon  que  la 
matiere  le  requeroit.  Nous  avons  oste"  les  tiltres  de  1'Adolescence,  Suite,  et 
Recueil  hors  du  corps  de  I'ceuvre,  pour  ne  le  trop  charger,  et  pour  n'estre 
chose  trop  necessaire:  et  les  avons  seulement  laissez  en  la  table,  pour  le 
contentement  d'aucuns  qui  seroient,  peult  estre,  curieux  de  scavoir  le  divers 
temps  des  compositions.  Pourtant  nous  esperons  que  chacun  demourra 
satisfaict  de  notre  petit  labeur,  lequel  prendrez  en  gre,  etc.2 

The  second  task  performed  by  Fontaine  while  in  the  employ 
of  Roville  was  no  less  ably  done  than  the  first.  It  was  the 
translation  into  French  of  a  Latin  work  by  Roville  entitled 
Promptuarium  iconum  insigniorum  a  seculo  hominum,  subiectis 
eorum  vitis,  per  compendium  ex  probatissimis  autoribus  desumptis 
(1553).  Fontaine's  translation  was  published  for  the  first  time  in 
1553  with  the  following  title:  Promptuaire  des  meddles  des  plus 
renommees  personnes  qui  ont  este  depuis  le  commencement  du 
monde:  avec  brieve  description  de  leurs  vies  et  faicts,  recueillie  des 
bons  auteurs.  The  Promptuarium  which,  as  the  title  indicates, 
purports  to  give  information  concerning  the  celebrities  of  the 
world  from  Adam  down,  was  embellished  with  about  eight  hun- 
dred woodcuts  en  medaillons,  the  work  of  the  Piedmontese  artist, 
George  Reverdy.3 

I  do  not  intend  to  discuss  here  the  worth  of  Roville's  com- 
pendium or  the  authenticity  of  Reverdy's  portraits  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  Noah,  Isis,  the  Minotaur,  Aeneas,  and  others.4  My  pur- 
pose is  to  prove  that  Charles  Fontaine  was  the  translator  of  the 

1  By  Pierre  Vase;  twenty-seven  in  the  first  book,  eighteen  in  the  second. 

*  M.  Picot,  who  is  of  the  opinion  that  Fontaine  was  the  editor  of  this  edition  of 
Marot's  works,  says  that  twenty-eight  epigrams  were  added,  as  well  as  the  Avatu 
Naissance  du  troisiesme  enfant  de  madame  la  duchesse  de  Ferrare. 

3  M.  Baudrier,  who  thinks  that  Reverdy  was  assisted  by  other  artists,  repro- 
duces six  of  the  woodcuts  in  the  Bibliographic  lyonnaise,  9°  s6rie,  p.  206. 

4  For  additional  information  relating  to  the  Promptuarium,  cf.  Bibliography,  A, 
no.  9. 


140  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Promptuarium,  a  fact  that  recent  bibliographers  have  failed  to 
mention.  Such  an  acquisition  to  Fontaine's  already  long  list  of 
works  is  of  no  little  importance.  The  Promptuarium  was  ex- 
tremely popular  during  the  late  Renaissance,1  and  even  to-day 
literary  historians  often  reproduce  Reverdy's  medallions  as  the 
most  trustworthy  likenesses  of  the  foremost  men  and  women  of 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.2 

It  is  not  in  Roville's  preface  to  the  Promptuaire  that  evidence 
must  be  sought  to  prove  that  Fontaine  translated  the  work. 
Roville  had  a  penchant  for  keeping  the  names  of  his  collaborators 
in  the  background,  as  has  been  seen  in  connection  with  his  edition 
of  Marot's  works.  In  the  preface  to  the  Promptuaire  he  goes  a 
step  farther,  —  he  does  not  even  hint  that  Fontaine  served  as 
translator  or  that  he  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  the 
preparation  of  the  volume.3 

La  Croix  du  Maine4  was  the  first  bibliographer  to  name 
Fontaine  as  the  translator  of  the  Promptuarium,  but  he  failed  to 
cite  any  proof  in  support  of  his  statement.  Goujet 6  also  as- 
cribed the  translation  to  Fontaine,  and  as  proof  cited  a  single 
extract  (a,  below)  from  Fontaine's  works.  A  careful  search  has 
brought  to  light  three  other  references  to  the  translation  by 
Fontaine  himself,  and,  more  probatory  still,  the  testimony  of  a 
contemporary,  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet: 

(a)  A  dizain  by  Fontaine: 

Apres  le  livre  de  M6dales, 

Et  autres  qu'en  prose  dressay  .  .  . 

Vivra  ma  Muse  prosalque.' 

1  The  popularity  of  the  Promptuarium  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  Roville  pub- 
lished new  Latin  editions  in  1578  and  1581,  new  French  editions  in  1576, 1577,  and 
1581,  Italian  editions  in  1553,  1577,  and  1581,  and  a  Spanish  edition  hi  1561. 

*  For  example,  the  picture  of  Maurice  Sceve  on  the  title  page  of  Maurice  Sceve  et 
la  Renaissance  lyonnaise,  by  Albert  Baur,  Paris,  1906. 

1  On  folio  247  there  is,  however,  a  quatrain  entitled  Au  tres  chrestien  Henri  second 
du  nom,  Charles  Fontaine. 

*  Vol.  i,  p.  108,  Rigoley  de  Juvigny  edition. 
1  Bibl.  franq.,  vol.  xi,  p.  139. 

'  Les  Nouvettes  et  antiques  meroeittes;  also  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  339. 


A  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  141 

(6)  The  dedicatory  epistle  of  Fontaine's  Diets  des  sept  Sages: l 

.  .  .  depuis  le  temps  que  les  sept  Sages  vivoyent  (il  y  a  ja  deux  mil  ans  ou 
plus,  comme  j'ay  declare  au  livre  du  Promptuaire  des  medales). 

(c)  Ibidem: 

Au  reste,  je  ne  veux  repeter  ici  ce  que  j'ay  traite  au  livre  des  Medales 
touchant  la  vie  des  sept  Sages. 

(d)  The  dedicatory  epistle  of  Fontaine's  Sentences  du  poete 
Ausone: 2 

II  y  a  ja  deux  mille  ans  ou  plus  (comme  j'ay  declare  au  livre  du  Promp- 
tuaire des  medales,  qui  a  este  presente  au  Roy  nostre  Sire  .  .  .)  que  les  sept 
Sages  de  Grece  ont  escrit  des  ditz  notables. 

(e)  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet,  in  a  eulogy  of  Fontaine's  works: 

Tairay  je  sa  prose,  et  recueil 
Du  Promptuaire  precieux, 
A  qui  Pallas  fait  grant  accueil 
Pour  labeur  tant  laborieux  ? 3 

It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  Fontaine  remained  in  the  service 
of  Roville  after  1553,  the  date  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Promp- 
tuaire. It  will  be  seen  later  that  in  June,  1555,  he  was  no  longer 

1  Lyons,  1557. 

2  Lyons,  1558. 

3  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles;  also  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  337.  —  In  the  first 
edition  of  the  Prompluaire,  an  epistle  addressed  by  Roville  to  "  Madame  Margue- 
rite de  France,  soeur  unique  du  roy,  duchesse  de  Berry,"  contains  these  words:  "  H 
m'a  semb!6  bien  convenable  de  vous  pr6senter  ce  present  volume  inscript  Promp- 
tuaire des  Medalles  lequel  ayant,  a  mon  adveu,  est6  escript  en  langue  latine  et  tos- 
cane,  pour  vous  le  rendre  plus  acceptable,  iceluy  j'ay  faict  traduire  en  nostre  langue 
franQoise,  non  pour  estimer  les  autres  langues  a  vostre  divin  esprit  incogneues,  mais 
pour  ceste  cy  vous  estre  plus  familiere  et  naturelle."    Commenting  on  these  lines, 
M.  Baudrier,  who  did  not  suspect  that  Fontaine  translated  the  Promptuarium  into 
French,  says:   "  C'est  par  une  feinte  modestie,  sans  doute,  que  Rouille',  dans  son 
6pltre  £  Marguerite  de  France,  dit  qu'il  a  fait  traduire  le  Promptuaire  en  francais, 
car  dans  les  avis  en  lathi,  en  italien,  en  francais,  pr6c6dant  ses  Editions  vari6es,  il 
s'en  avoue  ouvertement  le  pere  "  (Bibl.  lyon.,  pe  s6rie,  p.  33).   In  his  epistle  to  Mar- 
guerite, Roville  was  not  actuated  by  feigned  modesty;  he  was  merely  telling  the 
truth. 


142  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

connected  with  Roville,  or  at  least  that  he  accepted  another  posi- 
tion, the  principalship  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite  at  Lyons.1 

1  That  Fontaine  was  grateful  to  Roville  for  giving  him  employment  in  the  hour 
of  need  is  attested  by  the  following  quatrain: 

Diligence  et  dexte'rite', 
Amiti6  aux  gens  de  savoir, 
Vous  devoient  la  prosp£rit6 
Qu'on  peult  chez  vous  apercevoir. 

(Lts  Ruisseaux.  p.  183 :  A  son  compire  Cuillaume  Rouille,  libraire.) 


CHAPTER  VII 

FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  — I 

La  Defence  el  Illustration  de  la  langue  franQoise,  by  Joachim  du  Bellay.  —  Du 
Bellay's  attacks  on  the  old  school.  —  Does  Du  Bellay  attack  Fontaine  ?  —  The 
replies  of  the  old  school  to  the  Defence.  —  Le  Quintil  Horatian,  by  Barthelemy 
Aneau.  —  Fontaine's  letter  to  Jean  de  Morel.  —  La  N cuvette  maniere  de  faire  son 
profit  des  Lettres,  traduitle  en  franqois  par  J.  Quintil  du  Tronssay.  —  Le  Poete  courti- 
san.  —  Fontaine's  attitude  towards  the  Plifiade.  —  He  anticipates  several  of  the 
Plgiade's  teachings.  —  Fontaine  the  unpardonable. 

THE  Defence  et  Illustration  de  la  langue  franqoise  (February, 
1549),  Joachim  du  Bellay's  awkward  and  often  inconsistent 
manifesto,  is  divided  into  two  parts:  a  defense  of  the  French 
language  against  the  "  Latinizers,"  who  maintained  that  it  was 
inadequate  to  express  lofty  thoughts,  and  who  showed  their  con- 
tempt for  it  by  writing  in  Latin;  an  exposition  of  the  means  to  be 
employed  in  enriching  the  French  language,  which  was  already 
adequate  to  express  more  lofty  thoughts  than  some  persons  were 
willing  to  admit.  Inasmuch  as  Du  Bellay  took  the  view  that  all 
languages  are  in  the  beginning  equal,  and  that  their  strength  or 
weakness  is  due  entirely  to  the  men  that  use  them,  he  was  obliged, 
in  order  to  uphold  this  view,  to  disparage  not  only  the  "  Latin- 
izers "  who  had  despised  the  French  language,  but  also  the 
writers  of  France  who  had  written  in  the  vernacular.  A  more 
important  reason,  however,  forced  him  to  seek  to  depreciate  the 
efforts  of  his  predecessors.  The  Defence,  which  some  literary 
historians  have  erroneously  represented  as  coming  like  a  thunder- 
clap from  a  clear  sky,  in  reality  contained  very  little  that  was 
new.  Says  M.  fimile  Roy:1 

A  part  le  projet  arrete1  de  substituer  a  toutes  les  vieilles  formes  de  la 
poesie  francaise  les  cadres  et  les  genres  de  I'antiquite  (deja  presque  tous  re- 

1  Charles  Fontaine  et  ses  amis,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1897,  pp. 
419-20. 

143 


144  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

nouve!6s  en  France),  on  ne  trouve  guere  autre  chose  dans  les  amples 
p6riodes  de  Du  Bellay  et  ses  belles  phrases  a  longue  traine  que  des  lieux 
communs.  L'ltalie  a  epuis6  avant  nous  toutes  les  discussions  sur  Pavenir 
et  les  merites  respectifs  des  langues  modernes,  sur  la  grammaire,  la  versi- 
fication, la  prononciation,  1'orthographe,  la  constitution  du  vocabulaire,  les 
archaismes  et  les  dialectes,  et  toutes  ces  discussions  sont  plus  ou  moins 
connues  des  ronsardisants  et  de  leurs  adversaires.  II  en  est  de  me'me  de 
toutes  les  theories  sur  le  progres,  sur  I'heg6monie  litteiaire  et  scientifique 
qui  passe  d'un  peuple  a  1'autre,  sur  1'imitation  des  anciens.  .  .  Aliens  plus 
loin;  non  settlement  il  est  possible,  avec  un  long  temps  et  une  grande 
science,  de  retrouver  (on  1'a  fait)  en  France  me'me  presque  toutes  les  idees  de 
la  P16iade  avant  la  Pleiade  ...  Si  les  idees  de  la  Pleiade  sont  deja  connues, 
et  s'il  n'y  a  pas  grand'chose  a  innover  en  theorie,  que  peut-elle  faire,  sinon 
attaquer  les  homines  ?  La  Defence  est  surtout  une  attaque,  le  manifeste 
des  jeunes  qui  denigrent  les  anciens,  "  les  classiques,"  comme  dit  deja  Sibilet, 
aussi  bien  les  poetes  de  cour  dont  on  envie  la  grace  facile,  que  les  savants  et 
les  laborieux  qui  ont  entrevu  "  une  forme  de  poesie  plus  exquise."1 

Du  Bellay's  method  of  increasing  the  vigor  and  elevating  the 
tone  of  French  literature  was  drastic;  it  called  for  the  obliteration 
of  the  Marots,  the  Fontaines,  the  Haberts,  the  d'Aurignys,  and 
the  poetic  forms  that  they  had  used,  and  in  their  stead  the  sub- 
stitution of  enthusiastic  students  who  would  devour,  digest,  and 
assimilate  the  literary  productions  of  ancient  Greek  and  Roman 
and  modern  Italian  minds.2 

1  Cf.  P.  Villey,  Les  Sources  italiennes  de  la  "  Defence  et  Illustration  de  la  langue 
franQoise,"  Paris,  1908,  Avant-propos:  "...  cette  ceuvre  [the  Defence],  capitale 
dans  Phistoire  de  notre  literature,  n'est  pas  du  tout,  comme  on  le  pensait  en 
g6neial,  une  ceuvre  originale.  Certainement,  elle  est  en  grande  partie  traduite  de 
Pitalien,  et  probablement  en  totality  elle  est  d'inspiration  italienne.  C'est  seule- 
ment  par  son  opportunity,  par  son  influence  qu'elle  est  int£ressante." 

3  La  Defence,  n,  xi:  "  O  combien  je  desire  voir  s6cher  ces  Printems  [Jean  Le 
Blond],  chatier  ces  petites  Jeunesses  [Francois  Habert],  rabbattre  ces  Coups  d 'essay 
[Francois  Sagon],  tarir  ces  Fontaines  [Charles  Fontaine],  bref,  abolir  tous  ces  beaux 
tiltres  assez  suffisans  pour  degouter  tout  lecteur  scavant  d'en  lire  d'avantaige!  Je 
ne  souhaite  moins  que  ces  Depourveuz  [C16ment  Marot  ?],  ces  Humbles  esperans 
[Jean  Le  Blond],  ces  Banniz  de  lyesse  [Francois  Habert  or  Jean  Meschinot],  ces 
Esclaves  [Michel  d'Amboise],  ces  Traverseurs  [Jean  Bouchet]  soient  renvoy6s  4  la 
Table  ronde:  et  ces  belles  petites  devises  aux  gentilzhommes  et  damoyzelles,  d'ofi 
on  les  a  emprunt6es."  The  expression  "  tarir  ces  Fontaines  "  is  generally  regarded 
as  an  attack  on  Charles  Fontaine.  It  would  have  been  strange  indeed  had  Du 
BeUay  overlooked  Maltre  Charles,  one  of  the  foremost  disciples  of  Marot.  Fon- 
taine, however,  did  not  think  that  "  tarn  ces  Fontaines  "  was  aimed  at  him  (cf. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  145 

In  another  passage  of  the  Defence  (n,  ii),  Du  Bellay  continues 
his  attack  on  his  contemporaries  and  immediate  predecessors. 
After  conceding  that  the  writings  of  Guillaume  de  Lorris  and 
Jean  de  Meun  are  worthy  of  consideration,  not  because  of  their 
merit  as  poetry,  but  because  of  their  value  as  early  monuments  of 
French  literature,  and  that  Jean  Lemaire  de  Beiges  has  some 
good  points,  Du  Bellay  criticizes  several  authors  who  were  still 
living  or  who  had  but  recently  died.  This  passage,  on  account  of 
the  fact  that  no  names  are  mentioned,  has  caused  a  good  deal  of 
ink  to  flow.  Among  others,  M.  Henri  Chamard  and  M.  Emile 
Roy  have  endeavored  to  discover  the  identity  of  the  poets  that 
Du  Bellay  had  in  mind.1  Inasmuch  as  M.  Roy  is  of  the  opinion 
that  one  of  these  poets  was  Charles  Fontaine,  a  consideration  of 
his  article  is  necessary. 

MM.  Chamard  and  Roy  agree  in  the  main  upon  the  identity  of 
three  of  the  four  poets  attacked  by  Du  Bellay.  The  first,  who, 
according  to  the  author  of  the  Defence,  lacks  "  ce  qui  est  le  com- 
mencement de  bien  ecrire,  c'est  le  scavoir,  et  auroit  augmente  sa 
gloire  de  la  moitie,  si  de  la  moitie  il  eust  diminue  son  livre,"  is 
Clement  Marot;  the  second,  whose  rimes  are  not  always  very 
rich,  and  whose  poetry  "  est  tant  denue  de  tous  ces  delices  et 
ornementz  poetiques,  qu'il  merite  plus  le  nom  de  phylosophe  que 
de  poete,"  is  Antoine  Heroe't;  and  the  fourth,  who,  "  voulant 
trop  s'eloingner  du  vulgaire,  est  tumbe  en  obscurite  aussi  difficile 
a  eclersir  en  ses  ecriz  aux  plus  scavans  comme  aux  plus  ignares," 
is  Maurice  Sceve. 

MM.  Chamard  and  Roy  do  not  agree  upon  the  identity  of  the 
third  poet,  whose  defects,  it  will  be  observed  from  the  following 
quotation,  are  pointed  out  in  greater  detail  than  are  those  of 
Marot,  Heroe't,  and  Sceve: 

p.  151,  below).  I  shall  show  later  that  Fontaine,  in  the  Fontaine  d 'amour  (1545),  was 
in  reality  a  precursor  of  the  Plfiiade.  —  Du  Bellay's  views  concerning  literary  genres 
will  be  given  in  the  following  chapter. 

1  Chamard,  Sur  une  page  obscure  de  la  "  Defence,"  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de 
la  France,  1897,  p.  239;  Roy,  Charles  Fontaine  et  ses  amis,  ibid.,  1897,  p.  412. 


146  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Un  autre,  pour  n'avoir  encores  rien  mis  en  lumiere  soubz  son  nom,  ne 
me'rite  qu'on  luy  donne  le  premier  lieu:  et  semble  (disent  aucuns)  que  par 
les  ecriz  de  ceux  de  son  tens,  il  veuille  6ternizer  son  nom,  non  autrement  que 
D6made  est  ennobly  par  la  contention  de  D6mostene,  et  Hortense  de  Ciceron. 
Que  si  on  en  vouloit  faire  jugement  au  seul  rapport  de  la  renomm6e,  on  ren- 
droit  les  vices  d'iceluy  egaulx,  voyre  plus  grands  que  ses  vertuz,  d'autant  que 
tous  les  jours  se  lysent  nouveaux  6criz  soubz  son  nom,  a  mon  avis  aussi 
eloignez  d'aucunes  choses  qu'on  m'a  quelques  fois  asseure  estre  de  luy, 
comme  en  eux  n'y  a  ny  grace  ny  Erudition. 

After  some  hesitation,  M.  Chamard  decides  that  this  poet  is 
Jacques  Bouju.  In  a  reply  to  M.  Chamard's  article,  M.  Roy  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  Charles  Fontaine  is  the  object  of  Du  Bel- 
lay's  criticism.  Later,  M.  Chamard  comes  forward  with  another 
solution  —  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais  is  meant.1  Such  a  divergence 
of  opinion  might  lead  "too  iniquitous  or  too  severe  estimators 
of  things"  to  judge  that  conjectures  of  this  nature  are  of  slight 
value.  Let  us  examine,  however,  M.  Roy's  arguments  concern- 
ing Fontaine.  Bouju  and  Saint-Gelais  may  be  disregarded. 

As  a  clew  to  the  identity  he  is  seeking,  M.  Roy  takes  up  the 
word  "  contention  "  used  by  Du  Bellay.  This  he  defines  as 
"  emulation,"  "  rivalite,"  "  debat,"  and  he  thinks  that  the  poet 
in  question  sought  to  win  fame  by  participating  in  every  literary 
debate  that  arose.  The  chief  "  contentions  "  of  the  period  were 
the  "  blasons  des  membres  du  corps  feminin,"  by  Marot  and  his 
friends,  the  controversy  between  Marot  and  Sagon,  and  the 
"  querelle  des  amies."  M.  Roy  dismisses  the  first  two.  Of  the 
poets  whose  names  are  connected  with  the  "  querelle  des  amies," 
Heroet,  La  Borderie,  Angier,  Papillon,  and  d'Aurigny  are  elim- 
inated for  one  reason  or  another.  Fontaine  alone  remains.  He 
seems  to  meet  all  requirements,  says  M.  Roy,  but  only  "  with  a 
few  explanations." 

Did  Fontaine  publish  nothing  under  his  own  name  prior  to 
1549  ?  asks  M.  Roy.  His  case  rests  on  that  point.  He  passes  in 
review  Fontaine's  works:  the  poems  published  during  the  dispute 
between  Marot  and  Sagon  (1537),  the  Response  to  Papillon's 

1  La  Defence,  Chamard  edition,  Paris,  1904,  p.  182,  note  i. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  147 

Victoire  et  triumphe  d'Argent  (1537),  the  Contr'amye  de  Court 
(1541,  1543),  and  the  Fontaine  d' amour  (1545  and  1546).  The 
last  named  appeared  anonymously,  says  M.  Roy,  and  so  it  need 
not  be  considered.1  The  pieces  in  defense  of  Marot  against  Sagon 
and  the  response  to  Papillon's  poem  were  published  in  collections 
that  did  not  bear  Fontaine's  name  on  the  title  page.2 

We  now  come  to  a  point  which  destroys  M.  Roy's  arguments 
concerning  Fontaine's  anonymous  publications.  Trusting  Bru- 
net's  Manuel,  he  says  that  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  did  not  bear 
the  name  of  the  author  on  the  title  page.  In  1896,  the  year  pre- 
ceding the  appearance  of  M.  Roy's  article,  President  Baudrier 
published  the  second  series  of  the  Bibliographic  lyonnaise,  which 
contains  the  following  item: 3  "La  Contr'amye  de  court:  par 
Maistre  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien.  A  Lyon,  chez  Sulpice  Sabon: 
pour  Antoine  Constantin.  [A  la  fin :]  Imprime  d  Lyon  par  Sulpice 
Sabon,  1543.  In-8  de  47  pp.  .  .  .  Cat.  Didot,  1878,  no.  272." 
M.  Roy  has  taken  unwarranted  liberties  with  Fontaine's  other 
productions,  but  he  cannot  pass  over  the  Contr'amye  de  Court 
as  an  insignificant  or  unknown  work.  Du  Bellay  must  have 
been  acquainted  with  it,  and  he  must  have  observed  Fontaine's 
name  on  the  title  page.4 

1  Fontaine's  name  appears  above  the  dedicatory  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 
M.  Roy  does  not  mention  this  fact. 

1  Fontaine's  name,  however,  appears  above  each  of  his  poems  in  these  collections, 
and  this  fact  weakens  M.  Roy's  argument.  Must  a  writer's  name  be  on  the  title 
page  of  a  collection  of  poems  before  it  will  be  admitted  that  he  is  not  an  anonymous 
writer  ?  The  point  is  carried  too  far.  M.  Roy  goes  a  step  farther.  In  1546  Fon- 
taine published  his  Estreines  d  certains  seigneurs  et  dames  de  Lyon,  and  on  the  title 
page  appear  the  words  "  par  maistre  Charles  Fontaine."  This  seems  to  be  an 
insurmountable  obstacle,  and  yet  M.  Roy  brushes  it  aside  with  the  remark  that,  on 
account  of  the  "  intimate  and  domestic  "  nature  of  the  volume,  Du  Bellay  may 
never  have  heard  of  it.  Such  a  possibility  is  scarcely  admissible.  In  1546  Fontaine 
was  a  poet  of  national  renown,  and  even  if  this  truly  insignificant  work  had  not 
reached  Paris  through  ordinary  channels,  it  is  certain  that  Fontaine,  a  native  of 
Paris,  and  none  too  modest,  would  have  taken  care  that  it  did  reach  Paris,  the 
home  of  many  of  his  friends,  and  the  literary  center  of  France. 

3  P.  32. 

4  Compare  also:  La  Contr'amye  de  court:   Par  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien.    Im- 
prime  par  Adam  Saulnier,  [Paris].    1543.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Ye.  479. 


148  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that,  while  M.  Roy's  article  is 
ingenious  and  interesting,  he  fails  to  prove  his  thesis.  The  points 
that  he  does  prove l  may  be  applied  to  many  poets  of  the  tune 
(M.  Chamard  unearths  two),  and  he  fails  to  show  that  Fontaine 
published  nothing  under  his  name  before  1549. 

Scarcely  had  the  Defence  appeared  when  several  members  of 
the  old  school  undertook  to  reply  to  Du  Bellay's  arraignment.2 
Thomas  Sibilet  felt  that  he  was  especially  called  on  to  rebuke  the 
youthful  Joachim,  since  the  latter  had  held  up  to  ridicule  one  of 
the  verses  of  his  Sonnet  a  I'envieux,  published  in  the  Art  poetique 
franqoys.  Sibilet's  response  is  very  brief,  —  merely  a  few  lines  hi 
an  epistle  to  the  reader  in  his  translation  of  Euripides's  Iphigenia 
(November,  1549).  In  the  Art  poetique,  Sibilet  had  only  words 
of  praise  for  translations;  hi  the  Defence,  Du  Bellay  declared 
translations  worthless  as  a  means  of  giving  the  French  language 
and  literature  the  vigor  and  grandeur  that  characterize  the  lan- 
guages and  the  literatures  of  antiquity.  Sibilet  certainly  had  this 
declaration  in  mind  when  he  told  the  reader  of  his  Iphigene  that 
"  cette  mienne  mignardise  a  I'aventure  deplaira  a  la  delicatesse 
de  la  delicatesse  de  quelques  hardis  repreneurs:  mais  si  je  say  que 
la  friandise  vous  en  plaise,  ce  me  sera  plaisir  de  leur  deplaire  en 
vous  plaisant."  He  also  introduced  a  harmless  personal  thrust 
by  ridiculing  Du  Bellay's  desire  to  rise  above  the  common  herd, 
to  write  only  for  "  une  affectee  demye-douzaine  des  estimes 
princes  de  notre  langue,"  and  to  win  immortality  through  his 
paltry  writings. 

1  "  Les  nouveaux  €criz  qui  se  lysent  tous  les  jours  soubz  son  nom,"  according  to 
M.  Roy,  are  the  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine,  published  in  1555,  six  years  after  the 
Defence.  In  the  Ruisseaux  there  are  many  poems  written  as  early  as  1540,  and  so 
they  may  have  been  circulated  in  manuscript  before  1549.  In  the  same  volume 
Fontaine  also  mentions  a  work  or  two  that  he  presented  to  Francis  I.  Hence  M. 
Roy's  argument  concerning  the  "  nouveaux  6criz  "  is  valid.  To  prove  that  Fon- 
taine aspired  "  au  premier  lieu,"  M.  Roy  quotes  some  of  the  poet's  self-laudatory 
verses,  and  also  the  praises  of  a  few  of  his  contemporaries.  That  point  is  indispu- 
table, —  Fontaine  was  convinced  that  he  belonged  in  the  front  rank. 

*  Cf.  Chamard,  Joachim  du  Bellay,  Lille,  1900,  pp.  144  ff. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  149 

Sibilet's  rebuke,  confined  to  the  two  passages  cited  above,  was 
far  from  violent.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  reprimand  admin- 
istered to  Du  Bellay  by  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  a  member  of  the 
old  school,  but  also  a  close  friend  of  the  Pleiade.  In  his  Replique 
aux  furieuses  defenses  de  Louis  Meigret  (1550),  Des  Autelz  says 
that  he  is  pleased  to  see  the  innovators  doing  so  much  for  French 
poetry,  but  he  fears  that  they  are  unjust  and  ungrateful  toward 
their  predecessors.  With  considerable  critical  acumen,  he  attacks 
Du  Bellay 's  theory  of  imitation,  between  which  and  mere  trans- 
lation the  differences  are  slight.  He  advises  poets  to  cease  copy- 
ing the  writers  of  antiquity  and  the  Italians,  to  abandon  imita- 
tion as  well  as  translation,  and  to  endeavor  to  be  original.  He 
defends  some  of  the  old  poetic  forms  condemned  by  Du  Bellay  — 
the  ballade,  the  chant  royal,  the  lai,  the  moralite,  and  even  vers 
bateles  and  couronnes,  —  and  rightly  says  that  a  good  poem,  call 
it  ballade,  lai,  ode,  or  what  not,  deserves  the  scorn  of  no  man.  He 
closes  his  criticism  with  praise  of  Ronsard's  odes  and  of  Marot. 

The  manifestations  of  displeasure  by  Sibilet  and  Des  Autelz 
are  unimportant  when  compared  with  a  curious  little  volume,  Le 
Quintil  Horatian  l  sur  la  Defence  et  Illustration  de  la  langue 
franqoise,  which  endeavored  to  refute  the  Defence  in  its  entirety. 
For  nearly  three  and  one-half  centuries  the  Quintil  Horatian  was 
attributed  to  Charles  Fontaine.  Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  M. 
Pierre  de  Nolhac  and  M.  Henri  Chamard,  the  identity  of  the  real 
author  is  now  determined.  The  arguments  set  forth  by  M. 
Chamard  prove  so  convincingly  that  Fontaine  was  not  the  author 
of  the  Quintil  Horatian  that  it  will  be  well  to  summarize  them 
here. 

M.  Chamard's  article  2  is  divided  into  two  parts:  the  first  is 
devoted  to  the  establishment  of  the  date  of  the  Quintil  Horatian 
(February  or  March,  1550,  and  not  1551),  the  second  to  the 
elucidation  of  the  question  of  authorship. 

1  For  the  Quintilius  of  Horace,  see  Epist.  ad  Pisones,  438. 

2  La  Date  et  Vauteur  du  "  Quintil  Horalian,"  in  the  Revue  d'Hisl.  litt.  de  la  France, 
1898,  p.  54. 


150  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  proving  that  Fontaine  was  not  the  author  of  the  Quintil 
Horatian,  M.  Chamard  properly  lays  stress  on  a  letter  written 
by  Fontaine  to  Jean  de  Morel,1  in  which  he  denies  emphatically 
that  he  had  anything  to  do  with  the  composition  of  the  Quintil 
Horatian.2  He  goes  farther,  —  he  lays  the  Quintil  Horatian  at  the 
door  of  his  friend  Barthelemy  Aneau,  principal  of  the  College  de 
la  Trinit6  at  Lyons.  The  essential  part  of  Fontaine's  letter  to 
Morel  follows: 

Je  vous  vueil  aussi  advertir  de  quelque  chose  qui  concerne  mon  nom  et 
honneur  et  vous  prier  m'y  aider  et  pour  la  raison.  Car  soyez  asseure  qu'a 
tort  et  sans  cause  Ton  me  charge  par  dela  d'avoir  fait  un  petit  traict6  in- 
titu!6  Quintil  sur  la  Deffence  et  illustration  de  la  langue  francoise,  et  en  ay 
ja  y  a  environ  trois  sepmaines  que  j'en  ay  escrit  response,  et  m'en  suis 
purge  a  monsieur  le  Prevost  du  Fort  1'Evesque  qui  m'en  avoit  fait  advertir, 
comment  cela  estoit  mal  prins  et  a  mon  desa  vantage.  Sachez  done  et 
maintenez  franchement  centre  tous  que  je  ne  suis  auteur  dudict  Quintil, 
mais  le  principal  du  college  de  ceste  ville,  lequel  me  pensant  faire  plaisir  y 
adjousta  et  feit  un  quatrain3  en  la  fin  ou  il  a  mis  mon  nom  dessus;  dont  Ton  a 
prins  1'occasion  de  m'estimer  1'auteur  dudict  Quintil  precedent  ledict  qua- 
train, qui  toutesfoys  ne  sera  point  estime  estre  sorti  de  moy  ny  sentir  ma 
veine  a  tous  qui  avec  bon  jugement  y  adviseront  de  pres,  ny  aussi  plusieurs 
choses  qui  sont  dans  le  corps  dudict  Quintil.  Et  davantage  quant  ledict 
quatrain  ou  est  mon  nom  seroit  mien  (ce  qu'il  n'est,  et  vous  jure  mon  Dieu 
que  jamais  je  n'y  ay  pense  ny  n'en  ay  jamais  escript  ny  compose  un  seul  vers 
ny  une  seule  lettre),  s'ensuit  il  qu'il  faille  incontinent  et  legerement  juger  et 
conclure:  ergo  le  Quintil  qui  precede  ledict  quatrain  est  dudict  Fontaine  ? 
Mais  pourquoy  done  (respondra  un  homme  de  bon  jugement)  et  plus  tost  ne 
mettoit  ledict  Fontaine  son  nom  devant  ledict  Quintil,  que  le  Quintil  estant 
fini  le  mettre  sur  un  quatrain  seul,  qui  ne  correspond  au  Quintil  qui  est  en 
prose,  mesme  attendu  qu'il  semble  par  ledict  quatrain  qu'il  ayt  promis  et 
produit  au  dessus  une  ceuvre  po6tique  par  laquelle  il  se  veuille  dormer  gloire 
qui  effacera  1'Olive  ?  Je  croy  que  vous  et  tout  homme  de  bon  esprit  qui  m'a 
congneu  dedans  et  dehors,  ou  seulement  dehors,  par  mes  petites  ceuvres 

1  Jean  de  Morel  (1511-1581),  a  native  of  Embrun,  after  early  travels  in  Switzer- 
land and  Italy,  returned  to  Paris,  where  his  house  became  the  rendezvous  of  the 
foremost  men  of  letters  of  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  On  account  of  his 
readiness  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  young  poets,  he  was  one  of  the  most  important 
figures  of  the  time.  His  three  daughters,  'Camille,  Lucrece,  and  Diane,  and  his 
wife,  Antoinette  de  Loynes,  also  took  a  lively  interest  in  literary  matters. 

*  This  letter  was  discovered  by  M.  Pierre  de  Nolhac.  See  P.  de  Nolhac,  Lettres 
de  Joachim  du  Bellay,  Paris,  1883,  p.86. 

1  Cf.  p.  153,  below. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  151 

juveniles,  ne  m'estimera  point  si  arrogant  et  immodeste  que  ledict  quatrain 
sonne. 

II  y  a  plusieurs  autres  raisons  que  je  diray  paraventure  quelque  jour  plus 
amplement,  faisans  du  tout  au  contraire  de  1'estime  que  d'aucuns  ont  que 
soys  auteur  dudict  Quintil;  mais  a  present  pour  n'estre  trop  long  je  vous  en 
diray  encor  une,  que  bien  prendrez  ou  je  suis  bien  deceu.  Vous  scavez, 
Monsr  et  amy,  que  j'ay  sou  vent  et  fort  debatu  avec  vous  que  feu  Monsr  de 
Langey  (quern  ego  virum  honoris  causa  nomino)  n'estoit  autheur  d'ung 
livre  qu'on  [luy  attri]  buoit,  ductus  vel  sola  hac  ratione,  que  1'autheur  dudict 
[livre  louoit]  bien  fort  Monsr  de  Langey,  et  qu'estoye  en  ceste  opinion  que 
[ledict]  seigneur  n'eust  este  si  immodeste  de  se  louer  tant  en  un  sien  livre  et 
en  tierce  personne,1  qui  me  semble  chose  tres  mal  consonnante  et  conforme  a 
tout  bon  autheur  qui  veult  tenir  sa  reputation,  et  a  toute  bonne  ceuvre 
escrite:  or  est  il  que  1'autheur  dudict  Quintil  en  certain  passage  extolle  la 
Fontaine  pour  abaisser  un  autre  et  en  parlant  de  Fontaine  en  tierce  per- 
sonne, ce  que  jamais  je  ne  ferois  pour  les  raisons  que  je  debatois  avec  vous  a 
1'honneur  de  Monsr  de  Langey,  comme  j'ay  dit.  Pour  conclusion,  vous  povez 
penser  si  je  suis  joyeux,  id  est  que  je  suis  bien  fasche  d'avoir  est6  nomme  et 
imprime  en  un  bel  quatrain  qui  n'est  mien,  et  au  moyen  de  quoy  1'on  pense 
que  je  soys  autheur  du  Quintil.  II  est  vray  aussi  que  1'on  pourroit  penser  que 
je  seroye  fasche  de  quoy  1'autheur  de  Plllustration  auroit  ainsi  escript :  "  O 
qu'il  me  tarde  que  je  voye  secher  ces  prim  temps,  tarir  ces  fontaines  ";  mais 
je  vous  asseure  que  non  suis,  tant  pour  ce  que  je  doubte  s'il  entend  taxer  ma 
Fontaine  d'amour  ou  quelque  autre  livre  qui  seroit  nomme  les  Fontaines,  car 
il  ne  dit  pas  "  tarir  ceste  fontaine  ";  comme  aussi  parce  que  je  ne  fay  pas  cas 
de  madicte  Fontaine,  qui  est  seulement  mon  adolescence  que  depuis  j'ay 
recourue,  et2  .  .  .  en  vouloir  ny  pensement  d'escrire  contre  ledict  .  .  . 
ceste  occasion,  et  en  quelque  sorte  qu'il  entende  ce  passage;  car  aussi  j'ay 
bien  d'autres  pensemens  en  ma  teste.  II  est  vray  que  qui  me  taxeroit 
impudemment  et  nommeement,  certes  adonc  je  voudroys  abandonner  tous 
les  presens  pensemens  et  affaires  pour  en  prendre  ung  autre  nouveau,  a 
scavoir  de  contr'escrire,  me  deffendre  et  purger,  avec  toute  modestie  toutes- 
foys,  au  moins  autant  qu'il  me  seroit  naturellement  possible.  Je  suis  trop 
long,  mais  je  vous  pry  m'excuser  et  soustenir  fort  et  ferme  contre  tous  que  je 
ne  suys  auteur  ny  du  Quintil  ny  du  quatrain  qui  est  apres,  et  que  Ton  y  vise 
de  pres.  En  cest  endroit  me  recommanderay  a  vostre  bonne  grace  et  a  la 
damoiselle  de  voz  biens,  que  Dieu  gard  et  vous  et  les  vostres  et  siens.  II  vous 
plaira  faire  mes  recommandations  a  mess™  les  conseillers  du  Lyon  et  Verius 
et  a  Monsr  de  Villaines,  quant  1'occasion  se  trouvera,  sans  oublier  les  autres 

1  "  Guillaume  du  Bellay,  seigneur  de  Langey,  parle  de  lui-mfeme  &  la  troisieme 
personne  dans  ses  Ogdoades;  mais,  si  c'est  de  cet  ouvrage  qu'il  s'agit  dans  la  lettre 
de  Fontaine,  celui-ci  a  dti  le  voir  en  manuscrit,  car  il  n'a  6t6  imprime'  qu'en  1569,  & 
la  suite  des  mgmoires  de  Martin  du  Bellay  .  .  ."    (Note  by  P.  de  Nolhac). 

2  The  manuscript  is  torn  in  several  places.    When  possible,  M.  de  Nolhac  sup- 
plies the  missing  letters  or  words;  otherwise  suspension  points  are  inserted. 


152  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

que  sgavez  estre  de  ma  cognoissance,  mesmement  Monsr  de  Belle  Isle  et 
Monsr  Chesneau,1  anxquels  vous  plaira  dire  que  j'espere  estre  bien  tost  a 
Paris,  ou,  si  en  brief  je  n'y  voys,  qu'ilz  auront  de  mes  nouvelles. 
C'est  de  Lyon  ce  viij  april  [1550]  par 

Celui  qui  est  vostre  entierement, 

Charles  Fontaine. 
[Address:]  Monsr  de  Morel. 

Strangely  enough,  some  modern  critics  question  Fontaine's 
word  when  he  says  that  Barthelemy  Aneau  wrote  the  Quintil 
Horatian.2  The  following  additional  arguments  advanced  by 
M.  Chamard  render  doubt  impossible: 

(a)  The  Quintil  Horatian  rejects  the  elegy.  Fontaine's  elegies 
form  one  of  the  most  pleasing  parts  of  his  work;  for  example,  the 
twenty-two  elegies  in  the  Fontaine  &  amour  and  the  two  on  the 
death  of  his  sister  Catherine  and  his  son  Rene.3 

(6)  Fontaine,  who  was  born  in  1515  [rather  1514],  could  not 
have  translated  Horace's  Ars  Poetica  into  French  before  1530. 
The  author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  says  that  he  made  such  a 
translation  "  more  than  twenty  years  ago,"  that  is,  more  than 
twenty  years  before  1550,  the  date  of  the  Quintil  Horatian. 

(c)  The  contents  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  indicate  that  its  author 
was  a  college  regent,  a  man  thoroughly  versed  in  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  dialectics;  hence  Aneau  rather  than  Fontaine.4 

1  "  Dans  les  Ruisseaux  ...  on  trouve  une  d6dicace  '  a  Monsieur  du  Lyon,  con- 
seiller  au  Parlement  de  Paris '  (p.  167),  une  autre '  a  Monsieur  de  Belle  Isle '  (p.  193), 
une  enfin  'a  Louis  Chesneau,  lecteur  en  hfibrieu,  a  Paris '  (p.  202)."  (Note  by  P.  de 
Nolhac).  Fontaine  addressed  several  poems  to  Jacques  Verius,  "  conseiller  au 
Parlement  de  Paris."  Monsieur  de  ViUaines  was  Jean  Brinon,  "  seigneur  de  Vil- 
laines,  conseiller  du  Roy  en  sa  court  de  Parlement  a  Paris,"  to  whom  Fontaine 
inscribed  many  poems.  For  an  appreciation  of  Brinon,  a  most  interesting  person, 
see  P.  Laumonier,  Ronsard  poete  lyrique,  p.  133. 

*  Cf.  Chamard,  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1898,  p.  60. 

3  Cf.  pp.  177  ff.,  and  186  ff.,  below,  and  p.  124,  above. 

4  This  argument  is  not  very  strong.    In  chapter  x,  I  shall  show  by  means  of  a 
hitherto  unpublished  document  that  Fontaine  was  for  a  short  time  principal  of  the 
College  de  la  TrinitS,  the  position  held  by  Aneau  when  the  Quintil  Horatian  ap- 
peared.   Although  Fontaine  did  not  accept  the  principalship  until  1555,  there  is 
little  doubt  that  in  1550  he  was  well  acquainted  with  the  studies  mentioned  by  M. 
Chamard. 


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FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  153 

(d)  The  author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  seems  to  say  that  he 
was  a  jurisconsult.    Aneau  was  a  jurisconsult,  Fontaine  was  not. 

(e)  The  style  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  is  quite  like  Aneau's 
style  —  the  same  pedantic  language,  the  same  abuse  of  Greek  and 
Latin  derivatives.1 

(/)  In  the  Quintil  Horatian  there  are  ideas  and  phrases  used 
by  Aneau  in  other  works. 

After  setting  forth  these  arguments,  M.  Chamard  endeavors  to 
explain  why  the  Quintil  Horatian  was  ascribed  to  Fontaine  rather 
than  to  Aneau.2  Aneau,  recognizing  that  he  was  not  famous 
enough  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  old  school,  looked  about  him  for 
a  champion  and  chose  Fontaine,  one  of  Marot's  friends  and  dis- 
ciples, and  a  poet  known  throughout  France.  In  order  to  dupe 
the  public  he  published  the  Quintil  Horatian  anonymously,  and 
added  at  the  end  the  following  quatrain: 

La  Fontaine  a  I.  D.  B.  A.3 

Jamais  si  tost  ne  tarira 
Claire  eau  de  ma  fontaine  vive, 
Que  legier  feu  esteinct  sera 
De  1'huyle  obscur  de  ton  Olive.4 

1  M.  Chamard  might  have  made  this,  his  most  convincing  argument,  much 
stronger  had  he  carried  it  farther.    He  cites  merely  examples  of  Aneau's  prose  as 
compared  with  the  prose  of  the  Quintil  Horatian.    He  should  also  have  contrasted 
Fontaine's  straightforward  prose  (when  Fontaine  wrote  for  publication)  with  the 
often  incomprehensible  jargon  of  the  Quintil  Horatian. 

2  M.  Louis  C16ment  (Revue  de  la  Renaissance,  1904,  p.  231)  thinks  that  Aneau 
and  Fontaine  were  joint  authors  of  the  Quintil  Horatian. 

8  I[oachim]  D[u]  B[ellay]  A[ngevin].  Only  the  initials  appear  on  the  title  page  of 
the  Defence. 

4  Du  Bellay's  Olive  (1549)  contained  fifty  sonnets  and  thirteen  odes.  —  With 
Aneau's  quatrain  compare  the  following  extract  from  the  Quintil  Horatian:  "  En- 
vieux  souhait  ["  tarir  ces  Fontaines,"  etc.;  cf.  p.  144,  note  2,  above]  par  lequel  tu 
desires  les  ceuvres  d'autruy  estre  an6antiz,  qui  ne  sont  moins  dignes  de  dur6e  que 
les  tiens,  et  te  mocques  de  leurs  tiltres,  qui  sont  modestes,  et  non  ambitieux  comme 
le  tien,  et  ne  d£goustans  pas  les  lecteurs  (comme  tu  dis),  mais  plustost  les  invitans. 
Car  autant  et  plus  gracieux  est  Printemps  et  Fontaine  comme  Olive:  le  Printemps 
portant  aussi  belles  fleurs,  que  ton  Olive  beaux  fruictz:  la  Fontaine  aussi  coulante 
et  claire,  que  1'huile  de  ton  Olive  est  crasseux  et  faisant  obscure  lumiere." 


154  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  the  Quintil  Horatian,  adds  M.  Chamard,  Aneau  also  sought 
to  deceive  his  readers  by  writing  the  word  "  Fontaine  "  with  a 
capital  letter  when  a  small  letter  would  have  been  more  appro- 
priate. 

Aneau's  trick  was  successful.  Even  contemporary  writers 
thought  Fontaine  the  author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  huitain  by  Guillaume  des  Autelz: 

A  M.  Charles  Fonteine,  contre  un  envieux 

Les  neuf  Muses  ont  leur  eau  vive 
Mieux  recongnue  en  ta  fonteine 
Que  Pallas  ne  void  son  Olive 
Pacifique,  en  1'audace  vaine, 
Qui  ta  louenge  tres  certaine 
Veult  abbaisser:  6  envieux, 
Louenge  est  tant  de  toy  lointaine 
Que  tu  es  jeune  entre  les  vieux.1 

The  Defence,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  probably  contains  one 
allusion  to  Charles  Fontaine,  "  tarir  ces  Fontaines."  This  was 
not  the  only  attack  that  Du  Bellay  made  upon  Fontaine,  accord- 
ing to  fidouard  Fournier  and  M.  Louis  Clement. 

In  1559  was  published  at  Poitiers  (or,  more  likely,  at  Paris)  a 
small  octavo  volume  entitled  La  Nouvelle  maniere  de  faire  son 
profit  des  Lettres,  traduitte  en  franqois  par  J.  Quintil  du  Tronssay, 
en  Poictou.  Ensemble:  le  Poete-Courtisan.  It  is  especially  the 
translation  by  J.  Quintil  du  Tronssay  that  interests  us  for  the 
moment. 

This  translation  was  republished  in  1863  by  fidouard  Fournier,2 
and  around  it  the  learned  editor  wove  a  fantastic  tale.  Concern- 
ing the  authorship  of  the  poem  translated  he  knew  nothing.3 

1  Repos  de  plus  grand  travail  (1550),  p.  17.  —  Inasmuch  as  the  Quintil  Horatian 
has  been  definitely  stricken  from  Fontaine's  works,  its  contents  will  not  be  con- 
sidered here.  See  H.  Chamard,  Joachim  du  Bellay,  pp.  151-158;  J.  Spingarn, 
History  of  Literary  Criticism  in  the  Renaissance,  p.  182;  A.  Tilley,  The  Literature  of 
the  French  Renaissance,  vol.  i,  p.  315. 

J  Varietes  historiques  et  litteraires,  in  the  Bibl.  Elzev.,  vol.  x,  p.  131. 

J  The  poem  (in  Latin)  was  by  Adrien  Turnebe.  Cf .  Chamard,  /.  du  Bellay , 
p.  414;  Louis  Clement,  De  A.  Turnebi  praefationibus  et  poematis,  Paris,  1899. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  155 

He  conjectured  that  J.  Quintil  du  Tronssay  was  only  the  pseu- 
donym of  the  translator,  Joachim  du  Bellay.1  He  also  attempted 
to  discover  the  identity  of  the  person  attacked  in  the  Latin  poem, 
and  at  second  hand  by  Du  Bellay.  Du  Bellay's  pseudonym 
reminded  him  of  the  Quintil  Horatian,  and  as  Charles  Fontaine 
was  still  accepted  as  the  author  of  that  work,  he  must  have 
been  the  object,  thought  Fournier,  of  the  attack  in  the  Nouvelle 
maniere  de  faire  son  profit  des  Lettres.  In  other  words,  this  was 
Du  Bellay's  reply  to  the  Quintil  Horatian.  Let  us  see  what 
grounds  there  are  for  such  a  supposition. 
J.  Quintil  du  Tronssay's  poem  begins  as  follows: 

Quant  a  ce  que  tes  vers  frissonnent  de  froidure, 
Que  tes  labeurs  sont  vains,  et  que  pour  ta  pasture 
A  grand'peine  tu  as  un  morceau  de  gros  pain, 
Voire  de  pain  moisi,  pour  appaiser  ta  faim; 
Que  ton  vuide  estomac  abboye,  et  ta  gencive 
Demeure  sans  mascher  le  plus  souvent  oysive, 
Comme  si  le  jeusner  expres  te  feust  enjoinct 
Par  les  Juifs  retaillez;  que  tu  es  mal  en  poinct, 
Mai  vestu,  mal  couche:  Amy,  ne  pren  la  peine 
De  faire  desormais  ceste  complainte  vaine. 

The  satirist  now  tells  his  unfortunate  brother  how  he  may 
deceive  the  public  and  make  his  worthless  verses  pass  for  master- 
pieces. First,  let  him  betake  himself  to  Italy: 

Premier,  comme  un  marchand  qui  parle  navigage 
S'en  va  chercher  bien  loing  quelque  estrange  rivage, 
Afin  de  trafiquer  et  argent  amasser, 
Tu  dois  veoir  1'Italie  et  les  Alpes  passer, 
Car  c'est  de  la  que  vient  la  fine  marchandise 
Qu'en  beant  on  admire,  et  que  si  hault  on  prise. 
Si  le  ruse  marchand  est  menteur  asseur6, 
Et  s'il  scait  pallier  d'un  fard  bien  colore 
Mille  bourdes  qu'il  a  en  France  rapportees, 
Assez  pour  en  charger  quatre  grandes  chartees; 
S'il  scait,  parlant  de  Rome,  un  chacun  estonner; 
Si  du  nom  de  Pa  vie  il  fait  tout  resonner; 
Si  des  Venitiens  que  la  mer  environne, 

1  M.  Chamard  and  M.  Cle'ment  also  ascribe  the  translation  to  Du  Bellay. 


156  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Si  des  champs  de  la  Pouille  il  discourt  et  raisonne; 
Si,  vanteur,  il  scait  bien  son  art  authoriser, 
Louer  les  estrangers,  les  Francois  mespriser; 
Si  des  lettres  1'honneur  a  luy  seul  il  reserve 
Et  desdaigne  en  crachant  la  francoise  Minerve. 

Can  any  one  doubt,  asks  Fournier,  that  this  ironical  advice  was 
given  to  Charles  Fontaine  ?  Had  he  not  visited  Italy,  and  had 
he  not  returned  to  France  with  "  great  scorn  for  our  national 
literature,  for  the  French  Minerva  "  ?  Fontaine  visited  Italy,  it 
is  true,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  scorned  French  literature 
on  account  of  his  infatuation  for  the  Italians.  Later  in  this 
chapter  I  shall  cite  extracts  from  his  works  which  show  that  no 
Frenchman  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  greater  reverence  for 
the  French  language  and  literature. 
The  satire  continues: 

II  sera  bon  aussi  de  te  faire  advouer 
De  quelque  cardinal. 

This,  admits  Fournier,  is  more  of  an  attack  on  Du  Bellay  than  on 
Fontaine,  since  Joachim  had  been  hi  the  service  of  Jean  du 
Bellay. 

Next,  says  the  satirist,  let  the  poet  frequent  learned  men  and 
gain  their  good  will,  that  he  may  be  praised  by  them.  Let  him 
also  win  the  favor  of  the  ladies  of  the  court,  for  they  can  render 
great  assistance  to  their  friends.  These  points,  Fournier  does  not 
connect  with  Fontaine,  but  the  following,  he  thinks,  "  goes 
straight  at  Fontaine  "  : 

II  te  fault  quelques  fois,  soit  en  vers,  soit  en  prose, 
Escrire  finement  quelque  petite  chose 
Qui  sente  son  Virgile  et  Ciceron  aussi. 

This,  remarks  Fournier,  is  a  reference  to  the  Quintil  Horatian,  in 
which  Fontaine  "  shows  himself  so  pedantically  infatuated  with 
the  Latin  of  Horace,  Virgil,  and  Cicero." 

The  satirist  advises  the  poet  not  to  publish  anything,  but  to 
depreciate  what  others  publish: 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  157 

Mesmes,  ce  qui  sera  des  autres  imprime, 
Afin  que  tu  en  sois  plus  sgavant  estime, 
II  te  le  fault  blasmer. 

This  counsel,  too,  says  Fournier,  is  intended  for  Fontaine,  the 
author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian. 

The  remainder  of  the  poem  is  devoted  to  a  consideration  of 
mediocre  authors  who  talk  incessantly  about  the  works  they 
have  under  way,  and  thus  gain  fame  through  writings  that  never 
materialize.  Naturally,  this  does  not  apply  to  Fontaine,  who 
had  published  a  score  of  volumes  prior  to  1559. 

Of  the  three  thrusts  in  the  Nouvelle  maniere  de  faire  son  profit 
des  Lettres  which,  in  Fournier's  judgment,  "  go  straight  at  Fon- 
taine," one,  Fontaine's  scorn  for  French  literature,  is  simply  a 
misstatement,  and  the  other  two  are  based  upon  Fontaine's 
authorship  of  the  Quintil  Horatian.  Granting  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  his  contemporaries,  Fontaine  was  the  author  of  the 
Quintil  Horatian,  such  a  foundation  is  too  weak  to  uphold  the 
conjecture  that  he  was  the  target  for  Turnebe's  satire,  which 
contains  many  allusions  that  are  not  applicable  to  him.1 

In  the  same  volume  with  the  Nouvelle  maniere  de  faire  son 
profit  des  Lettres  was  published  for  the  first  time  Joachim  du 
Bellay's  celebrated  satire,  the  Poete  courtisan,  the  greater  part  of 
which,  according  to  M.  Louis  Clement,  was  also  directed  against 
Fontaine.2 

M.  Clement  agrees  in  a  measure  with  the  time-honored  opinion 
that  the  Poete  courtisan  was  aimed  at  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  the 
court  poet  par  excellence  of  his  day.  Can  any  one,  he  asks,  fail  to 
recognize  Saint-Gelais  in  the  poet  whom  Du  Bellay  advised  to 

1  M.  Chamard  and  M.  Clement  are  of  the  opinion  that  Turnebe's  poem  was 
aimed  at  Pierre  de  Paschal,  historiographer  of  Henry  II.    Paschal,  a  resourceful 
man,  but  a  worthless  writer,  persuaded  his  literary  friends  to  praise  him  unstint- 
ingly,  with  the  result  that  he  was  appointed  to  his  high  position  at  court.    Once 
installed  in  office,  he  forgot  the  friends  who  had  placed  him  there  and  whom  he  had 
promised  to  favor.    His  friends,  Du  Bellay  and  Turnebe  among  them,  then  turned 
against  him  and  made  him  the  butt  of  bitter  attacks. 

2  Le  Poete  courtisan  de  J.  du  Bellay,  in  the  Revue  de  la  Renaissance,  1904,  p.  225. 


I  $8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

prize  petty  sonnets,  dizains,  chansons,  rondeaux,  and  ballades 
more  highly  than  the  Iliad;  to  scorn  the  writers  of  antiquity,  and 
to  seek  inspiration  from  the  court  alone;  to  write  pieces  de  cir- 
constance  on  a  victory,  a  wedding,  a  banquet,  or  a  tournament; 
to  have  his  chansons  set  to  music  and  sung  in  the  chamber  of  the 
king  ?  And  who  can  doubt  that  Du  Bellay  had  Saint-Gelais  in 
mind  when  he  represented  the  court  poet  winning  fame  by  serving 
as  guide  to  poets  newly  arrived  at  court  ?  Finally,  Saint-Gelais 
was  surely  meant,  says  M.  Clement,  when  Du  Bellay  alluded  to 
the  ridicule  that  would  have  been  the  lot  of  a  certain  poet,  "  de 
son  temps  le  premier  estime,"  had  he  published  any  of  his  works. 
Unfortunately,  M.  Clement  finds  a  number  of  allusions  that  do 
not  fit  Saint-Gelais.  Another  prototype  of  the  Poete  courtisan 
must  be  found.  Pierre  de  Paschal,  as  well  as  Saint-Gelais,  showed 
a  disinclination  to  publish  his  compositions,  and  also  made  just 
such  a  display  of  learning  as  Du  Bellay  censures  in  these  lines: 

II  fault  des  lieux  communs,  qu'a  tous  propos  on  tire, 
Passer  ce  qu'on  ne  sgait,  et  se  monstrer  sgavant 
En  ce  que  Ton  a  leu  deux  ou  trois  soirs  devant. 

Notwithstanding  the  clear  case  made  against  Saint-Gelais  and 
Paschal,  M.  Clement  discovers  that  he  has  the  greater  part  of  the 
Poete  courtisan  left  on  his  hands.  Still  another  prototype  must 
be  found.  Charles  Fontaine  sought  to  gain  the  favor  of  royalty 
by  flattery;  Du  Bellay  surely  had  him  in  mind.  M.  Clement 
does  not  stop  there.  Saint-Gelais  and  Paschal  were  honored 
with  only  a  few  verses  of  the  satire;  Fontaine  was  the  chief  of 
the  court  poets,  and  in  addition  a  base  and  scheming  knave. 

Poor  Maltre  Charles,  who  spent  most  of  his  life  in  poverty,  is 
introduced  to  the  reader  by  M.  Clement  in  the  following  terms: 
"  Saint-Gelays  mort,  il  [Fontaine]  etait  le  chef  designe  des  versi- 
ficateurs  de  cour,1  la  mouche  la  plus  bourdonnante  et  la  plus  gour- 

1  If  M.  Clement's  remark  is  true,  the  court  poets  had  in  Fontaine  a  most  apa- 
thetic chief.  There  is  no  evidence  that  after  Saint-Gelais's  death  (October  14, 
1558)  Fontaine  composed  a  single  verse  besides  the  Salutation  au  Roy  Charles  IX, 
sus  son  entree  en  sa  noble  et  antique  ville  de  Lyon  (1564),  a  pamphlet  of  sixteen  pages. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  159 

mande  de  1'essaim  qui  s'abattait  sur  les  gratifications  royales. 
A  ce  titre  seul,  il  avait  sa  place  marquee  dans  la  satire  du  Poete 
courtisan."  M.  Clement  then  advances  the  following  arguments 
to  prove  that  Fontaine  was  the  main  object  of  Du  Bellay's  satire: 

(a)  The  Poete  courtisan  condemns  writers  of  dizains,  epigrams, 
and  other  short  pieces  addressed  to  great  lords.  Fontaine  wrote 
such  poems. 

(6)  The  Poete  courtisan  condemns  poets  who  profess  to  be  born 
poets,  and  who  boast  that  they  write  verses  with  little  effort. 
Fontaine  was  proud  of  the  fact  that  his  poems  cost  him  little 
labor,  and  that  he  was  a  poet  by  nature. 

(c)  Fontaine  sought  to  make  his  writings  clear.    Du  Bellay 
advises  the  court  poet  to  avoid  all  "  mots  durs  ou  nouveaux  " 
that  puzzle  the  reader. 

(d)  Fontaine  invoked  Apollo.    Du  Bellay  informs  the  reader 
that  he  is  going  to  depict  "  Apollon  courtisan." 

(e)  Fontaine  asserted  that  he  did  not  write  for  the  common 
herd.    This  boast  does  not  escape  Du  Bellay. 

(/)  Fontaine  said  that  he  kept  his  poems  for  some  time,  re- 
wrote them,  tried  to  improve  them.  This,  says  Du  Bellay,  is  a 
sign  that  the  poet  is  afraid  to  publish  his  poems. 

(g)  Fontaine  flattered  the  members  of  the  Pleiade,  and  on  the 
same  page  praised  Marot  and  Saint-Gelais.  This  equivocal 
attitude,  says  M.  Clement,  explains  why  Du  Bellay  attacked 
Fontaine  in  the  Poete  courtisan.  Then  M.  Clement,  recalling  the 
passage  in  which  the  court  poet  gains  prestige  by  acting  as  guide 
to  poets  newly  arrived  at  court,  changes  his  mind:  "  L'homme, 
ici  depeint,  a  le  caractere  bas  et  envieux  de  Fontaine,"  heremarks, 
and  yet  he  prefers  Saint-Gelais,  for  had  Saint-Gelais  not  assumed 
an  equivocal  attitude  when  he  sought  to  belittle  Ronsard's  verses 
by  reading  them  aloud  in  a  ridiculous  manner  ? 

(ti)  Fontaine  addressed  poems  to  men  of  learning,  as  well  as  to 
great  lords.  Du  Bellay  counsels  the  court  poet  to  flatter  the 
learned. 


160  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

After  presenting  these  arguments,  M.  Clement  says  by  way  of 
conclusion:  "  Poete  courtisan,  Fontaine  1'a  ete  dans  ses  livres, 
il  est  infiniment  probable  qu'il  essaya  de  jouer  ce  r61e  a  la  cour; 
sinon  on  ne  s'expliquerait  pas  qu'il  ait  recu,  avec  une  mesure  aussi 
large,  les  honneurs  de  la  satire." 

M.  Clement  offers  the  reader  a  conclusion  that  does  not  con- 
clude. His  "  probable  "  reveals  the  weakness  of  his  thesis.  It  is 
unquestionably  difficult  to  prove  that  Fontaine  was  the  court 
poet  unless  it  can  be  proved  that  he  was  a  court  poet.  "  In  his 
books  "  Fontaine  was  a  court  poet  in  precisely  the  same  manner 
as  Marot,  Saint-Gelais,  Habert,  Des  Autelz,  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay, 
and  virtually  every  other  poet  of  note  in  the  sixteenth  century.1 
The  Poete  courtisan  was  not  directed  against  an  individual,  either 
Saint-Gelais  or  Paschal  or  Fontaine,  but  against  a  class;  and 
some  characteristic  of  this  class  is  to  be  found  in  almost  all  the 
contemporaries  of  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay.2 

In  attempting  to  prove  at  all  costs  that  the  Poete  courtisan  was 
aimed  especially  at  Fontaine,  M.  Clement  treats  him  most 
unjustly.  That  Maitre  Charles  lacked  the  gift  of  composing 
delicate  verses  no  one  will  deny.  But  he  was  neither  ignorant 
nor  imbecile,  as  M.  Clement  declares  passim.3  However,  these 
points  may  be  disregarded.  It  is  when  M.  Clement  represents 
Fontaine's  attitude  towards  the  Pleiade  as  that  of  an  envious, 
jealous  intriguer  that  he  makes  his  most  grievous  error.4  Must 

1  By  actual  test  I  find  that  all  but  one  (g)  of  M.  Clement's  arguments  can  be 
applied  to  Ronsard,  whom  Du  Bellay  surely  was  not  attacking.    Naturally,  Ron- 
sard did  not  assume  an  equivocal  attitude  towards  the  PISiade.    That  he  was  not 
free  from  envy  is  shown,  however,  by  the  sonnet  which  begins  7/5  ont  menti,  Daurat. 

2  Cf.  P.  Laumonier,  Ronsard  poete  lyrique,  Paris,  1909,  p.  172,  note  5:  "  L.  C16- 
ment,  pour  qui  Du  Bellay  a  visS  surtout  Fontaine  en  empruntant  quelques  traits 
Sgalement  a  Paschal  et  si  Saint-Gelais.    Nous  pensons  que  cette  satire  a  une  port6e 
bien  plus  g£n£rale  et  s'applique  &  tous  les  poetes  du  temps." 

3  Cf.  Clement,  p.  249:   "  Ces  traits  du  caractere  de  Fontaine  sont  pre'cise'ment 
ceux  qu'a  releve's  Du  Bellay:   1'obse'quiosite'  grimacante,  1'ignorance  et  la  sottise 
prfisomptueuse." 

4  Cf.  C16ment,  p.  232:    "  Fontaine  n'avait  a  Pe'gard  de  la  P16iade  que  des  senti- 
ments de  basse  jalousie.    D6pourvu  de  toute  facult^  poe'tique,  son  impuissance 
1'aigrissait;  mais  il  suppleait  au  talent  par  1'intrigue." 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  161 

it  be  supposed  that  because  Fontaine  was  a  disciple  of  Marot  he 
did  not  see  that  the  principles  advocated  by  the  Pleiade  were  on 
the  whole  excellent  ?  When  he  praised  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay  and 
their  followers  for  their  efforts  toward  bettering  the  language  and 
literature  of  France,  must  it  be  inferred  that  his  praise  was  insin- 
cere, and  was  prompted  only  by  a  desire  to  curry  favor  with  the 
victorious  side  ?  Because  a  poet  is  mediocre,  must  he  be  hypo- 
critical and  malevolent  ? 

The  following  verses  show  Fontaine's  real  attitude  toward  the 
members  of  the  Pleiade: l 

A  M.  de  Ronsard,  poete  qui  nous  a 
resuscite  le  Pyndare,  poete  lyrique  grec. 

Dieu  gard  celuy  dont  la  grand'  lyre 
A  la  grande  France  estonnee, 
Quand  luy  feit  craqueter  et  dire 
Sa  chanson  thebaine  entonnee: 

Autant  haulte  comme  nouvelle 
A  la  douce  oreille  gallique, 
Et  d'autant  admirable  et  belle 
Qu'elle  sonne  a  la  pyndarique.2 

To  Du  Bellay,  "  seigneur  de  Gonnor  ": 

Pour  escrire  vers  de  hault  pris 

Tu  entens  mieulx  que  moy  le  poinct.8 

To  Dorat,  "  tres  docte  en  grec  ": 

Ami,  non  moins  savant  que  sage, 
Celuy  qui  ores  ne  saura 
D'ou  vient  Minerve,  le  lira 
Facilement  en  ton  visage.4 

1  Only  once  does  Fontaine  speak  slightingly  of  the  methods  of  the  Pleiade  (cf. 
p.  197,  below).    M.  C16ment  overlooked  the  passage. 

2  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles:   Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  d  la  mile  de  Paris, 
stanzas  74  and  75.    Compare  also  the  quatrain  A  Pierre  de  Ronsard,  poete  du  roy: 

Ne  creins,  ne  creins,  Ronsard,  ce  dous  stile  poursuivre, 
Stile  qui  te  fera,  non  moins  que  Pautre,  vivre: 
Autre  obscur  et  scabreux,  s'il  ne  fait  a  blamer, 
Si  se  fait  51  pourtant  trop  plus  creindre  qu'aymer. 
(Odes,  (nigmes,  et  ipigrammes,  p.  67.) 

*  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  199.  4  Ibid.,  p.  202. 


1 62  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

To  Baif: 

Le  chant  de  ta  Muse,  Baif, 
Muse  francoise,  done  eureuse, 
Est  si  parfaict  et  si  naif, 
Si  plein  de  grace  armonieuse 
Qu'il  te  fera,  et  mort  et  vif, 
Vivre  la  vie  glorieuse, 
Mai  gre  Caron  et  son  esquif , 
Mai  gre  1'eau  noire  oblivieuse.1 

For  Jodelle's  Cleopdtre,  "  que  le  roy  voulut  voir  jouer,"  for 
Olivier  de  Magny  and  his  Castianire,  for  Belleau  and  Pontus  de 
Tyard,  Fontaine  had  only  words  of  praise.2  To  Du  Bellay,  Ron- 
sard,  Jodelle,  Baif,  and  Magny,  he  addressed  the  following 

sixain: 

Les  vers  latins  j'ay  delaissez 
Pour  escrire  en  nos  vers  francois, 
Ou  la  Muse  vous  ha  poussez. 
C'estoit,  c'estoit  aux  temps  passez, 
Paravant  ce  grand  Roy  Francois 
Qu'on  brouilloit  tout  en  latinois.3 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Fontaine  was  insincere.  The 
verses  cited  above  deserve  more  consideration  than  does  M. 
Clement's  proof  of  Fontaine's  base  and  envious  nature  —  that  is, 
his  having  placed  eulogies  of  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay,  Marot,  and 
Saint-Gelais  on  the  same  page.  And  even  hi  such  an  unimportant 
matter  M.  Clement  is  in  error:  Fontaine  praises  Marot  on  page 
82  and  page  207  of  the  Ruisseaux,  Ronsard  and  Saint-Gelais  on 
page  198,  and  Du  Bellay  on  page  199. 

Fontaine's  admiration  for  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay,  and  their  fol- 
lowers was  only  natural;  he  had  entertained  some  of  then*  chief 
ideas  before  the  Brigade  was  formed.  For  instance,  that  he  had 
as  lofty  an  idea  of  the  poet's  vocation  and  believed  as  firmly  in 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  203. 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  199,  200,  201,  209. 

1  Odes,  enigmes,  et  tpigrammes,  p.  66. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  163 

hard  work  as  did  the  author  of  the  Defence  l  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing lines  to  Nicole  Le  Jouvre: 2 

Estimes  tu  (6  ami)  qu'il  suffise 

De  faire  vers  en  mesure  comprise 

Bien  justement,  si  qu'on  n'en  puisse  oster 

De  la  mesure,  ou  aussi  adjouster  ? 

Que  soit  assez  d'avoir  bon  et  doux  stile, 

Termes  communs,  et  langage  facile  ? 

Non,  non,  ami:  il  fault  grand  jugement, 

Bon  sens  rassis,  pesant  soigneusement 

Avec  1'oreille,  et  sans  legeretl, 

Le  son  des  vers,  la  grace  et  gravite, 

La  sont  plusieurs  inventions  requises, 

Dignes  propos,  et  sentences  exquises: 

Si  nous  voulons  qu'ils  soient  par  cy  apres 

Escritz,  gardes  en  cedre  et  en  cypres.3 

Celuy  en  qui  mil  savoir  ne  deffault, 

Qui  a  1'esprit  bien  divinement  hault, 

La  bouche  d'or,  et  la  plume  divine, 

Luy  seul  du  nom  de  poete  est  digne  .  .  . 

Brief,  ce  n'est  rien  si  avec  grand  science 

Ne  joint  eureuse  et  longue  experience  .  .  . 

Pource  1'on  doit  long  temps  ses  vers  garder, 

Car  il  les  fault  mille  foys  amander 

Et  chatier  .  .  .« 

Sagement,  done,  nous  fault  noz  vers  parer 

De  longue  main,  polir  et  reparer  .  .  . 

Revoir,  polir,  veiller,  les  ongles  mordre, 

Et  bien  souvent  cheveus  et  barbe  tordre. 

1  Cf.  La  Defence,  11,  iii:  "  Qui  veut  voler  par  les  mains  et  bouches  des  homines, 
doit  longuement  demeurer  en  sa  chambre:  et  qui  d6sire  vivre  en  la  m6moire  de  la 
post6rit6,  doit  comme  mort  en  soymesmes,  suer  et  trembler  maintesfois,  et  autant 
que  notz  poetes  courtizans  boyvent,  mangent  et  dorment  a  leur  oyse,  endurer  de 
faim,  de  soif,  et  de  longues  vigiles." 

2  The  epistle  to  Le  Jouvre  was  published  in  the  Ruisseaux  (1555),  p.  30,  but  it 
was  composed  before  1549.    Francois  Habert,  in  his  Premier  livre  des  sermons  du 
sententieux  poete  Horace  (1549)  published  an  epitaph  of  Le  Jouvre. 

8  Cf.  Horace,  Epist.  ad  Pisones,  331-332: 

speramus  carmina  fingi 
Posse  linenda  cedro  et  levi  servanda  cupresso  ? 

Other  borrowings  from  Horace  are  noticeable  in  this  epistle. 

4  In  1537  Fontaine  gave  the  same  advice  to  Sagon  and  La  Hueterie.    Cf.  pp.  23, 
24,  above. 


1 64  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

A  commonplace  in  the  works  of  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay  is  the 
belief  in  the  divine  inspiration  of  poets.  Fontaine  entertained  the 
same  belief: 

A  bien  parler  qu'est  ce  que  poSsie 

Fors  une  ardante  et  saincte  phrene'sie  ? 

Comme  bien  lire  en  nostre  Ovide  on  peult, 

Dieu  est  en  nous,  qui  nous  eschaufe  et  meut.1 

Let  us  now  consider  a  point  which  forms  the  very  foundation  of 
the  Defence,  —  the  exhortation  to  French  writers  to  abandon 
the  use  of  the  dead  languages,  in  order  that  the  vulgar  tongue 
might  become  more  vigorous  and  more  ornate.2  Like  Du  Bellay, 
Fontaine  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  French  language  was 
inferior  to  Greek  and  Latin.  In  an  epistle  written  about  1546 
to  Jean  Orry,  a  lawyer  of  Le  Mans,  he  says: 

Aux  Tulles,  Demosthenes, 
Aux  gens  savans,  soit  de  Rome  ou  d'Athenes, 
Je  ne  suis  rien,  ou  bien  peu  je  leur  suis, 
Car  de  bien  loing,  ou  de  rien  les  ensuis. 
Ilz  ont  leur  veine  ou  latine  ou  attique 
Exquise  fort:  j'ay  la  mienne  rustique 
En  mon  francoys,  qui  est  moins  precieux, 
Et  moins  orne,  diffus,  et  copieux: 
Parquoy  en  eux  on  trouve  la  semence 
De  bien  parler,  et  de  grand  eloquence, 
Tant  leur  langage  est  beau,  riche,  et  hant6: 
(Tel  1'ay  trouve  quand  jeune  1'ay  gouste). 
Mais  en  mon  rude  et  tant  rural  ramage, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  8.     This  passage  occurs  in  an  epistle  to  Francis  I,  who  died  in 
1547.    Cf.  Ovid,  Ars  Amatoria,  ru,  549. 

2  La  Defence,  i,  i :    " .  .  .  je  ne  puis  assez  blamer  la  sotte  arrogance  et  t6m6rit6 
d'aucuns  de  nostre  nation,  qui  n'6tans  riens  moins  que  Grecz  ou  Latins,  d£prisent  et 
rejettent  d'un  sourcil  plus  que  stoique  toutes  choses  6crites  en  francois:  et  ne  me 
puys  assez  6merveiller  de  l'6trange  opinion  d'aucuns  scavans,  qui  pensent  que 
nostre  vulgaire  soit  incapable  de  toutes  bonnes  lettres  et  Erudition:  comme  si  une 
invention,  pour  le  languaige  seulement  devoit  estre  jug£e  bonne  ou  mauvaise."    Cf. 
Ronsard,  Abrege  de  I'art  poetique  fr an$ois,  Blanchemain  ed.,  vol.  vii,  p.  323:  "  Qui- 
conques  furent  les  premiers  qui  oserent  abandonner  la  langue  des  anciens  pour 
honorer  celle  de  leur  pals,  ils  furent  v6ritablement  bons  enfans,  et  non  ingrats 
citoyens,  et  dignes  d'estre  couronnez  sur  une  statue  publique,  et  que  d'age  en  age  on 
face  une  perpgtuelle  m6moire  d'eux  et  de  leurs  vertus." 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  165 

En  tout  mon  faict,  escriture,  ou  langage 
Qui  bien  y  voit  y  trouve  seulement 
Un  lasche  cours,  vague,  sans  fondement. 
Or  ne  prenez  en  mal  ou  a  injure 
Ce  que  j'ay  dit  parolle  un  petit  dure 
Non  en  faveur  de  nostre  langue:  pource 
Que  verite,  de  vertuz  mere  et  source, 
Sans  aucun  blasme,  ou  affection  dire, 
Selon  propos  m'a  contraint  de  ce  dire.1 

Like  Du  Bellay  too,  Fontaine  not  only  criticized  the  French 
language,  but  he  defended  the  French  language,  French  poetry, 
and  rime  in  French  poetry.  The  following  extract  is  taken  from 
an  epistle  written  by  Fontaine  to  his  uncle  Jean  Dugue.  Even  at 
such  an  early  date  (about  1535)  2  Maitre  Charles's  patriotism 
was  aroused  by  the  scornful  attitude  of  "a  few  Latins"  towards 
their  native  speech: 

Si  vous  venez  respondre  que  la  ryme 
N'a  poesie  et  vers  qui  soient  d'estime, 
Et  que  les  vers  grecz,  latins,  italiques 
Sont  trop  meilleurs,  et  trop  plus  poetiques, 
J'en  suis  assez  de  vostre  fantaisie: 
Mais  ou  sera  francoise  poesie 
Sinon  en  ryme  ?    Or  en  la  rejettant 
Nous  desprisons  nostre  langue  d'autant. 
Mais  si  jadis  les  Grecs  et  les  Latins 
Ont  employe  maints  soirs  et  maints  matins 
A  composer  des  vers  en  leur  langage, 
Serons  nous  bien  de  si  lasche  courage, 
Serons  nous  bien  si  rudes  et  divers 
De  rejetter  et  mespriser  noz  vers  ? 
Ainsi  que  font  quelques  gens  eshontez, 
Quelques  Latins  qui  n'ont  iceux  goustez.1 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  249. 

2  Nearly  ten  years  before  the  publication  of  the  famous  dedication  of  Jacques 
Peletier's  translation  of  the  Ars  Poetica  of  Horace.     Compare  also  a  poem  by 
Peletier,  A  un  poete  qui  n'escrivoit  qu'en  Latin  (1547),  S€ch6  edition  of  Peletier's 
works,  Paris,  1904,  p.  no. 

8  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  310.  Elsewhere  Fontaine  defends  rime;  for  instance,  in  a 
Remontrance  aux  detracteurs  de  poesie  franqoise  (ibid.,  p.  98);  also,  on  the  same 
page,  Autre  sur  ce  mesme  propos.  These  two  poems  are  printed  among  poems 
written  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I,  and  so  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  they  were  com- 


1 66  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Fontaine  often  gives  voice  to  the  same  sentiments: 

J'escri  en  francois  doucement, 

Qui  en  latin  pouvois  escrire 

Plus  amplement  et  doctement: 

Leur  langue  est  plus  ample  a  vray  dire: 

La  n6tre  honorer  je  desire, 

Comme  ont  fait  les  Latins  la  leur: 

Leur  nation  n'est  plus  en  fleur, 

La  n6tre  s'en  va  florissant, 

Et  croist  avec  ce  grand  Croissant 

Que  nous  produist  le  grand  Francois, 

(C'est  mon  double  astre  ou  que  je  sois, 

Et  quelque  part  qu'il  vienne  ou  voise). 

Mais  ne  sommes  nous  pas  Frangois  ? 

Notre  langue  est  ell'  pas  francoise  ? x 

Vous  vous  ebahissez  comment 
J'escri  tant  en  langue  francoise: 
Ce  n'est  faulte  de  jugement, 
Que  j'ay  petit,  dont  ce  me  poise, 
Mais  un  seul  mot,  sans  bruit  et  noise, 
Renverse  toutes  raisons  vostres, 
C'est  qu'une  langue  si  courtoise 
Est  nostre,  et  si  fait  fruit  aux  nostres.1 

When  the  Pleiade  had  won  the  day,  Fontaine  offered  them  his 
hearty  encouragement: 

Que  me  font  Latins  anciens  ? 
D'eux  je  tire  profit  aux  miens: 
Si  les  miens  n'entendent  latin 
Profit  y  auront,  bien  matin. 
Je  vous  voy,  grans  esprits  de  France, 
Mettre  la  France  en  florissance. 
Poursuivez  (sus  la,  hardiment) 
En  prose  et  en  vers  vivement. 

posed  before  1549.  —  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay,  Sibilet,  Peletier,  and  Antoine 
Foclin,  recognizing  that  it  was  useless  to  try  to  write  blank  verse  in  French,  later 
shared  Fontaine's  opinion  regarding  rime.  See  La  Defence,  n,  vii:  De  la  rythme  et 
des  vers  sans  rythme,  and  M.  Chamard's  notes  to  that  chapter. 

1  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes,  p.  63 :  A  la  nation  franqoise.  This  poem  was 
probably  written  after  1549. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  116:  L'Auteur  a  quelques  siens  amis.  This  huitain  is  grouped 
with  poems  written  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLFJADE  167 

Notre  langue  n'est  si  barbare 
Que  dit  un  latineur  ignare. 
Plutarque  dit:  Chacun  harangue 
Et  escrive  bien  en  sa  langue.1 

From  the  foregoing  quotations  it  may  be  readily  seen  that 
Fontaine  had  no  reason  to  regard  the  members  of  the  Pleiade  as 
his  enemies  or  to  be  envious  or  jealous  of  them.  He  had  antici- 
pated several  of  the  reformers'  most  important  teachings:  the 
exalted  idea  of  the  poet's  vocation  and  his  divine  inspiration;  the 
defense  of  the  French  language  against  the  "  escumeurs  de 
latin  ";  and  the  defense  of  rime.  Instead  of  assuming  a  hostile 
attitude  towards  the  Pleiade,  as  M.  Clement  would  have  us 
believe  he  did,  it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  welcome  Ron- 
sard,  Du  Bellay,  and  their  co-workers  who,  by  their  genius  and 
authority,  gained  substantial  recognition  for  principles  he  had 
advocated  for  years.2 

What  was  the  attitude  of  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay  towards 
Fontaine  after  their  cause  became  firmly  established  ?  Did  they, 
when  victors,  generously  forgive  him  as  they  forgave  other  pred- 
ecessors and  contemporaries,  including  Marot  and  Saint- 
Gelais  ? 3  Neither  Ronsard  nor  Du  Bellay  ever  condescended  to 
honor  him  with  a  single  verse.  For  any  evidence  of  forgiveness 
we  must  go  to  the  works  of  one  of  the  most  obscure  members  of 
the  Pleiade,  Pontus  de  Tyard,  whose  right  to  stand  in  the 
glorious  company  has  been  challenged.  Even  he  does  not  address 
a  line  to  Fontaine;  his  good  will  is  shown  only  by  the  fact  that 
he  permitted  Maitre  Charles  to  insert  a  mediocre  dizain  in  his 
Discours  du  temps,  de  l'an,  et  de  ses  parties* 

1  Odes,  enigmes,  el  epigrammes,  p.  78:  Aux  doctes  poetes  et  orateurs  en  la  langue 
franqoise.    It  should  be  remembered  that  Fontaine's  device  was  Hante  le  franQois, 
the  anagram  of  his  name. 

2  In  the  following  chapter  I  shall  endeavor  further  to  show  wherein  Fontaine 
anticipated  the  theories  of  the  Pleiade. 

3  Concerning  the  forgiving  spirit  of  the  Pleiade,  see  fimile  Roy,  Charles  Fontaine 
et  ses  amis,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1897,  p.  421. 

4  Lyons,  1556. 


1 68  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

The  silence  observed  by  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay  towards  Fon- 
taine is  easily  explained.  Although  one  of  the  foremost  disciples 
of  Marot,  and  therefore  entitled  to  his  share  of  forgiveness,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  for  the  Pleiade,  as  for  the  greater 
part  of  their  contemporaries,  he  was  the  author  of  the  sarcastic 
Quintil  Horatian,  the  only  noteworthy  response  to  the  Defence. 
His  letter  to  Jean  de  Morel  was  no  more  credited  in  1550  than  it 
is  credited  by  many  persons  to-day.  The  haughty  Pleiade  could 
not  deign  to  forgive  the  impertinent  poet  who,  they  thought,  had 
dared  to  hold  their  preachments  up  to  scorn. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  — II 

Fontaine  and  the  poetic  forms  condemned  by  Du  Bellay.  —  The  epigram;  influence 
of  Martial.  —  Fontaine's  translations  from  Sannazaro.  —  The  "  familiar  and 
domestic  "  epistle.  —  Fontaine  and  the  poetic  forms  recommended  by  Du  Bellay. 
—  The  elegy;  influence  of  Ovid  and  of  other  ancient  and  modern  poets.  —  Petrar- 
chism.  —  Importance  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour  in  the  history  of  the  evolution  of 
French  poetry.  —  fclegie  sur  le  trespas  de  Catherine  Fontaine.  —  The  ode;  influence 
of  Horace  and  of  Ronsard.  —  The  marine  eclogue;  influence  of  Sannazaro. 

AFTER  disparaging  his  predecessors  in  French  poetry,  Du  Bellay 
undertook  to  tell  the  future  poet  what  kind  of  poems  he  should 
write: 

Ly  donques  et  rely  premierement  (6  Poete  futur),  fueillete  de  main  noc- 
turne et  journelle  les  exemplaires  grecz  et  latins:  puis  me  laisse  toutes  ces 
vieilles  poesies  francoyses  aux  Jeuz  Floraux  de  Thoulouze  et  au  Puy  de 
Rouan:  comme  rondeaux,  ballades,  vyrelaiz,  chantz  royaulx,  chansons,  et 
autres  telles  episseries,  qui  corrumpent  le  goust  de  nostre  langue,  et  ne  ser- 
vent  si  non  a  porter  temoingnaige  de  notre  ignorance.  Jette  toy  a  ces  plai- 
sans  epigrammes,  non  point  comme  font  aujourd'huy  un  tas  de  faiseurs  de 
comtes  nouveaux,  qui  en  un  dizain  sont  contens  n'avoir  rien  diet  qui  vaille 
aux  neuf  premiers  vers,  pourveu  qu'au  dixiesme  il  y  ait  le  petit  mot  pour  rire: 
mais  a  Pimmitation  d'un  Martial,  ou  de  quelque  autre  bien  approuve,  si  la 
lascivite  ne  te  plaist,  mesle  le  profitable  avecques  le  doulz.  Distile  ...  ces 
pitoyables  elegies,  a  Pexemple  d'un  Ovide,  d'un  Tibule  et  d'un  Properce,  y 
entremeslant  quelquesfois  de  ces  fables  anciennes,  non  petit  ornement  de 
poesie.  Chante  moy  ces  odes,  incongnues  encor'  de  la  Muse  francoyse  .  .  . 
Quand  aux  epistres,  ce  n'est  un  poeme  qui  puisse  grandement  enrichir  nostre 
vulgaire,  pource  qu'elles  sont  voluntiers  de  choses  familieres  et  domestiques, 
si  tu  ne  les  voulois  faire  a  rimmitation  d'elegies,  comme  Ovide,  ou  senten- 
cieuses  et  graves,  comme  Horace.  Autant  te  dy  je  des  satyres,  que  les 
Francois,  je  ne  scay  comment,  ont  apellees  coqz  a  1'asne:  es  quelz  je  te 
conseille  aussi  peu  t'exercer  .  .  .  Sonne  moy  ces  beaux  sonnetz,  non  moins 
docte  que  plaisante  invention  italienne  .  .  .  Chante  moy  d'une  musette 
bien  resonnante  et  d'une  fluste  bien  jointe  ces  plaisantes  ecclogues  rustiques, 
a  1'exemple  de  Theocrit  et  de  Virgile,  marines,  a  1'exemple  de  Sennazar, 
gentilhomme  neapolitain  .  .  .  Quand  aux  comedies  et  tragedies,  .  .  .  tu 
scais  ou  tu  en  doibs  trouver  les  archetypes.1 

1  La  Defence,  n,  iv.     In  the  following  chapter,  Du  Bellay  treats  the  "  long 

poeme  francoys,"  or  epic. 

169 


1 70  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Let  us  now  examine  the  forms  of  poetry  used  by  Charles  Fon- 
taine in  order  to  see  whether  he  employed  the  French  forms  so 
hotly  denounced  by  Du  Bellay,  and  whether  he  employed  any  of 
the  classical  and  Italian  forms  recommended  by  him. 

Some  of  the  "  episseries  "  ridiculed  by  Du  Bellay  may  be 
immediately  dropped  from  consideration.  Fontaine  came  too 
late  to  compose  rondeaux  and  virelais,  which  were  no  longer 
in  vogue,  or  ballades  and  chants  royaux,  which  were  in  their  last 
decline;  nor  did  he  compose  chansons  or  coq-d-Vdne.  Of  the  forms 
condemned  by  Du  Bellay,  there  remain  to  be  considered,  then, 
only  the  epigram  and  the  "  domestic  and  familiar  "  epistle. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  two  kinds  of  epigrams 
were  popular  in  France,  the  one  attacked  by  Du  Bellay  — 
dizains  made  up  of  nine  worthless  verses  and  a  tenth  with  "  le 
petit  mot  pour  rire  ";  the  other  described  thus  by  M.  Buisson: 
"  On  les  intitulait  alors  Epigrammata,  ce  qui  ne  designait  nulle- 
ment  des  epigrammes,  pas  meme  de  celles  '  qui  ont  des  dents  de 
lait,'  mais  simplement  des  pieces  de  circonstance,  billets  en  vers, 
morceaux  applaudis  la  veille  en  petit  comite.  "  x 

A  number  of  epigrams  by  Fontaine  of  the  kind  described 
by  M.  Buisson  have  already  been  reproduced  in  this  study. 
However,  in  order  to  focus  attention  upon  their  nature,  a  few 
specimens  will  be  cited  here.  To  a  lady  of  Lyons,  Fontaine  sent 
the  following  verses,  together  with  a  copy  of  Amadis  de  Gaule: 

Ce  livre  que  je  vous  envoye 
N'est  a  la  court  moins  estime1 
Que  celuy  qui  se  met  en  voye 
Est  de  vostre  cueur  bien  aym6 : 
Amadis  de  Gaule  est  nomine, 
Qui  fut  preux  aux  amours  et  armes: 
Aussi  vostre  cueur  bien  arme 
N'est  sans  amours  ny  sans  alarmes.1 

1  F.  Buisson,  Stbastien  Castettion,  vol.  i,  p.  29.  M.  Buisson  is  speaking  of  Latin 
epigrams,  but  those  in  French  are  of  the  same  character.  Strange  to  say,  Du 
Bellay  did  not  attack  this  kind  of  epigram,  perhaps  the  commonest  type  of 
"  6pisserie." 

*  La  Fontaine  d'amour. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  171 

Information  relating  to  the  history  of  the  time  is  to  be  found  in 
such  pieces  as  the  Resjouyssance  au  commun  peuple  pour  ceste 
annee,  mil  cinq  cents  xlv: 

Resjouis  toy,  6  populaire, 
Qui  tous  ces  jours  fus  tant  fasche: 
Resjouis  toy,  je  te  declaire 
Que  ton  mal  sera  relasche : 
Tu  auras  a  meilleur  march£ 
Le  pain,  le  vin,  et  leur  sequelle, 
Par  cest  an  qui  se  renouvelle: 
Dieu  te  donne  un  regard  propice, 
Et  le  Roy  fait  une  nouvelle 
Ordonnance  sur  la  police.1 

In  one  of  his  gayer  moods,  Maitre  Charles  shows  some  feeling 
(more  or  less  conventional)  for  nature : 

Ruisseaux  courants  entre  les  buissonnetz, 
Avecq  doux  bruit  resjouyssants  1'oreille, 
Et  vous  aussi,  mes  gentilz  sansonnetz, 
Tarins,  serins,  rossignolz  mignonnetz, 
Qui  decoupez  de  grace  nompareille 
Mille  motetz  gracieux  a  merveille, 
Vous  m'incitez  avecques  voz  sons  netz 
Chanter  chansons,  ballades  et  sonnetz, 
Et  puys  haulser  le  cul  de  ma  bouteille.2 

Fontaine  gives  a  lesson  in  natural  science  A  un  quidam,  affer- 
mant  que  le  soleil  n'est  essenciellement  chault: 

Le  plus  grand  ciel  par  son  grand  mouvement 
Cerne  le  monde  en  un  naturel  jour: 
Lune  et  soleil  vont  plus  tardivement, 
Et  chacun  d'eux  a  part  soy  fait  son  tour, 
Qui  est  divers  a  ce  ravissement. 
Le  plus  hault  ciel,  a  ton  sot  jugement, 
Devroit  trop  plus  donques  luire  et  flammer: 
Et  pourroit  bien,  mouvant  si  roidement, 
Tout  1'univers  destruire  et  enflammer.8 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour.     For  a  similar  piece,  see  Marot,  De  Van  1544,  Jannet 
edition,  vol.  iii,  p.  101.     Cf.  also  the  huitain,  Aux  Compaignons  imprimeurs  de  la 
ville  de  Paris,  p.  135,  above. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Odes,  (nigmes,  et  epigrammes,  p.  81. 


172  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Let  us  now  consider  the  kind  of  epigram  censured  by  Du 
Bellay  —  the  dizain,  the  first  nine  verses  of  which  serve  only  as 
padding  before  the  tenth,  "  le  petit  mot  pour  rire."  But  is  Du 
Bellay  consistent  ?  After  condemning  such  epigrams,  he  suggests 
Martial  or  "  quelque  autre  bien  approuve  "  as  a  model  for  future 
epigrammatists.  Do  not  his  scornful  nine  worthless  verses  plus 
"  le  petit  mot  pour  rire  "  apply  to  many  of  Martial's  epigrams  ?  l 
However  that  may  be,  Fontaine  wrote  epigrams  of  the  sort 
ridiculed  by  Du  Bellay,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  used  Martial  as  a 
model,  although  it  is  impossible  to  determine  whether  directly  or 
through  the  medium  of  Marot.2 

The  epigrams  influenced  by  Martial  all  appeared  in  the  Fon- 
taine d' amour,3  which  was  first  published  in  1545,  four  years 

1  Compare,  for  instance,  C16ment  Marot's  translation  of  an  epigram  by  Martial, 
De  la  tristesse  de  s'amye,  Jannet  edition,  vol.  iii,  p.  97  (Martial,  vii,  14),  with  an 
original  epigram  by  Marot,  D'un  cordelier,  Jannet  edition,  vol.  iii,  p.  104.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  methods  of  the  two  poets  are  identical.  Martial's  original  epigram, 
Marot's  translation,  and  Marot's  original  are  all  dizains.  In  this  connection,  the 
influence  upon  French  poets  of  the  Italian  sonneteers  and  strambottists,  who 
often  concentrated  the  point  of  their  poems  in  the  last  verse,  must,  of  course,  be 
taken  into  consideration. 

*  That  Fontaine  was  acquainted  with  Marot's  translation  of  a  handful  of  Mar- 
tial's epigrams  is  shown  by  the  following  quatrain,  which  appeared  among  the 
epigrams  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour: 

Marcial,  le  gentil  poete, 

Parle  francoys  beau  et  plaisant, 

En  maint  epigram  me  luysant: 

A  Marot  en  devons  la  dete. 

Guillaume  Roville,  in  the  preface  to  his  fourth  edition  of  Marot's  works  (1550), 
says  that  Fontaine  helped  him  to  rearrange  some  of  Marot's  epigrams  in  imitation 
of  Martial  (cf.  p.  138,  above).  In  the  Ruisseaux,  p.  70,  Fontaine  says: 

Si  Martial  est  renomme 
Epigrammataire  gentil, 
Pour  avoir  son  temps  consume 
Et  maint  epigramme  subtil, 
Pour  quoy  done  ne  sera  1'outil 
De  ma  franf oise  Muse  ayraee 
Renomme  ?    Encores  eust  il 
La  pointe  un  petit  moins  limoe  ? 

In  an  ode  to  the  Cardinal  de  Chastillon  (Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammcs,  p.  27),  Fon- 
taine speaks  of  himself  as  "  poSte  epigrammataire." 

*  Martial  is  quoted  in  the  dedicatory  letter  (cf.  p.  186,  below). 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  173 

before  the  Defence.  At  this  time,  Maitre  Charles's  conception  of 
the  epigram  coincided  with  that  of  Martial.  The  Latin  poet  him- 
self could  not  have  characterized  his  own  verses  in  a  more  pithy 
manner  than  Fontaine  does  epigrams  in  general  in  these  lines  to 
the  reader  of  the  Fontaine  d' amour: 

Les  epigrammes  ont  licence 

Et  de  poindre  et  de  chatouiller: 

Et  pourtant  1'ignorant  ne  pense 

De  me  venir  cy  barbouiller 

Que  trop  mes  vers  je  vien  souiller, 

Et  que  j 'offense  les  oreilles. 

L'epigramme  est  mal  acoustic" 

S'il  ne  poingt.    Mais  voicy  merveilles, 

Qui  vid  oncq'  Priapus  chastre  ?  1 

The  following  malicious  warning  to  the  woman  readers  of  the 
Fontaine  d' amour  is  also  quite  in  Martial's  vein: 

Gardez  vous  de  toucher  ce  livre, 
Mes  dames,  il  parle  d'amours: 
C'est  aux  hommes  que  je  le  livre, 
Que  Ton  tient  plus  constants  tousjours. 
Laissez  I'aller  vers  eulx  son  cours: 
A  eulx,  et  non  a  vous,  est  deu: 
Mais  vous  le  lirez  nuictz  et  jours, 
Puis  que  je  vous  1'ay  defendu.2 

Unlike  Marot,  Fontaine  did  not  make  use  of  the  subjects  of  any 
of  Martial's  epigrams;  his  imitation  was  confined  solely  to  the 
method  of  composition:  sketches  of  personal  foibles,  interspersed 
with  malicious  touches  and  some  obscenity.  For  example: 

1  Cf.  Martial,  xi,  2: 

Triste  supercilium  durique  severa  Catonis 

Frons  et  aratoris  filia  Fabricia, 

Et  persona ti  fastus  et  regula  morum 

Quidquid  et  in  tenebris  non  sumus,  ite  foras,  etc. 
1  Cf.  Martial,  xi,  16: 

Tu  quoque  nequitias  nostri  lususque  libelli 

Uda  puella  legas,  sis  Patavina  licet. 

Erubuit  posuitque  meum  Lucretia  librum; 

Sed  coram  Bruto;  Brute,  recede;  leget. 


174  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

A  un  grand  bavard 

L'eau  tombant  du  del  bien  menue 
Par  temps  et  par  experience 
Les  caillonx  cave  et  diminue, 
Combien  qu'ilz  soient  de  dure  essence. 
La  terre  qui  prend  patience 
Use  son  soc  par  grands  journe'es: 
Les  arbres  usent  leurs  coignees: 
Mais  ton  babil  plein  de  harengue, 
Et  tes  motz  de  longues  menses, 
N'ont  jamais  peu  user  ta  langue. 

A  celuy  qui  avoit  peur  de  mourir 

Quand  malade  au  lict  tu  seras, 
Voyre  a  1'article  de  la  mort : 
Scais  tu  (monsieur)  que  tu  feras, 
Pour  faire  a  la  mort  un  grand  tord, 
Et  faire  a  sante  ton  acord  ? 
Ne  cherche  medecins  exquis: 
Ne  soient  apothicaires  quis: 
Mais  pour  chemin  plus  brief  du  tiers, 
Fay  moy,  sur  tes  amys  aquis, 
Le  plus  grand  de  tes  heritiers. 

A  un  beau  prometeur,  qui  ce  pendant  faisoit  V amour 

Tu  me  prometz  de  tes  habits, 
Tu  me  prometz  ton  dyamant: 
Tu  me  prometz  ton  beau  rubis, 
Et  puys  tu  trenches  de  Pamant. 
Lors  comme  la  pierre  d'aymant 
Tire  le  fer,  certes  ainsi 
Tes  voysines  tirent  aussi 
Anneaux,  habitz.    Je  me  repens 
Que  premier  ne  prins  tout  cecy: 
Tu  le  fais  trop  a  mes  despens.1 

Besides  the  epigrams  in  imitation  of  Martial,  Fontaine  inserted 
among  the  epigrams  of  the  Fontaine  d 'amour  four  translations  of 

1  See  also  the  epigram  A  Monsieur  Maurice  Sceve  (p.  64,  above),  which  appeared 
in  the  Fontaine  d' amour.  The  malicious  touch  in  the  final  verse  is  quite  in  keeping 
with  Martial's  manner  of  criticizing  the  writings  of  others.  —  I  shall  refrain  from 
citing  specimens  of  Fontaine's  obscene  epigrams.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  are 
quite  as  broad  as  similar  epigrams  by  Martial  or  by  Marot. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  175 

Latin  epigrams  by  Jacopo  Sannazaro,  with  two  or  three  excep- 
tions the  earliest  borrowings  by  a  French  writer  from  the  works  of 
the  author  of  the  Arcadia.1  Sannazaro's  poems,  with  Fontaine's 
versions,  follow: 

De  Galla 

Omnes  quos  scripsi  versus  vult  Galla  videre, 
Mittam  ego,  pro  libris  si  mihi  labra  dabit.2 

De  Catin 

Catin  se  plainct,  Catin  se  deult 
Qu'elle  ne  voit  tous  nies  escriptz! 
Et  dit,  je  veulx  que  me  les  livres, 
Puis  quand  j'entends  ses  plaintz  et  cris, 
Je  suis  content  s'elle  me  veult 
Donner  ses  lebvres  pour  mes  livres. 

De  Thelesinae  crinibus 

Dum  nectit  flavos  auro  Thelesina  capillos, 
Contraxit  radios  Phoebus  et  erubuit. 
Mox  haec  ad  superos:  en  auro  iungitur  aurum: 
Hoc  est  mortales,  hoc  superare  deos.3 

De  Catin 

Ainsi  comme  Catin  se  mire 
En  peignant  son  beau  chef  dore, 
Le  soleil  vient  droit  dessus  luyre, 
Et  ha  si  beau  chef  adore. 

Autre 

Par  un  matin  Catin  se  mire 
En  peignant  son  beau  chef  dore, 
Mais  le  soleil  ses  rays  retire 
De  dueil  qu'il  ha  et  de  grand  ire, 
De  veoir  un  chef  si  bien  pare. 

1  C.  Ruutz-Rees,  Charles  Fontaine's  "  Fontaine  d'amour  "  and  Sannazaro,  in 
Modern  Language  Notes,  March,  1912.    The  author  of  this  excellent  article  conjec- 
tures that  Fontaine  became  acquainted  with  Sannazaro's  works  during  his  Italian 
journey  (cf.  pp.  47  ff.,  above).    Fr.  Torraca,  in  Gl'Imitatori  stranieri  di  Jacopo 
Sannazaro,  second  edition,  Rome,  1882,  makes  no  mention  of  Fontaine's  borrow- 
ings from  Sannazaro. 

2  Jacobi  Sannazarii  opera  omnia  latine  scripta  nuper  edita,  Aldus,  1535,  fol.  39  r°. 
8  Ibid.,  fol.  52  v°. 


1 76  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Ad  Vesbiam 

Aspice  quam  variis  distringar  Vesbia  curis. 

Uror,  et  heu!  nostro  manat  ab  igne  liquor: 

Sum  Nilus,  sumque  Aetna  simul:  restringite  flammam, 

O  lacrimae,  lacrimas  ebibe  flamma  meas.1 

De  Amour  quifaictfeu  et  eau 

Je  m'esbahy  qu'en  eau  ne  suis  fondu, 
Qui  n'ay  jamais  les  povres  joues  seiches: 
Plus  m'esbahy  qu'amour  ne  m'a  rendu 
Tout  convert!  en  cendres  et  flammesches, 
Aussi  aise  comme  petites  mesches. 
Je  suis  le  Nil,  et  suis  le  mont  Etna. 
Etna,  pourtant  qu'au  monde  tel  feu  n'a: 
Le  Nil,  pourtant  que  je  fondz  tout  en  pleurs. 
Feu,  boy  ces  pleurs  qu'amour  me  resigna, 
Pleurs,  restraignez  ce  feu  et  ces  chaleurs. 

The  other  form  of  poetry  condemned  by  the  Defence  and  used 
by  Fontaine,  the  "  familiar  and  domestic  "  epistle,  was  not, 
according  to  Du  Bellay,  capable  of  enriching  the  French  language 
to  a  great  extent.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
youthful  reformer  and  an  overweening  desire  to  belittle  his 
predecessors  render  him  unreasonable  ?  Surely  Clement  Marot's 
charming  epistle  to  Lyon  Jamet,  "  the  lion  and  the  rat,"  and  the 
epistle  Au  Roy,  pour  avoir  este  desrobe  cannot  be  cast  aside  as 
worthless.2 

Fontaine  wrote  about  a  dozen  "  familiar  and  domestic " 
epistles.  They  are  usually  addressed  to  friends,  and  deal  with 
the  events  of  everyday  life,  the  health  of  the  poet,  gossip,  with 
occasional  remarks  on  poetry.  At  times  Maitre  Charles  dis- 
cusses more  lofty  themes,  as  in  the  Epitre,  philosophant  sur  la 

1  Jacobi  Sannazarii  opera  omnia  latine  scripfa  nuper  edita,  Aldus,  1535,  fol. 
43  v°. 

1  Cf.  A.  Tilley,  The  Literature  of  the  French  Renaissance,  vol.  i,  p.  75:  "  The 
Epistles  are  perhaps  Marot's  most  characteristic  work.  Other  poets  have  written 
songs  as  natural,  as  tender,  and  as  graceful,  but  in  these  familiar  Epistles,  with  their 
rapid  movement,  their  picturesque  and  yet  concentrated  language,  their  liveliness 
and  wit  and  humor,  he  has  certainly  never  been  surpassed,  and  has  probably  never 
been  equalled,  in  modern  times." 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  177 

bonne  amour,1  and  in  the  epistle  A  une  dame,  pour  la  consoler  sur 
la  mort  de  son  wary.2  Two  of  Fontaine's  epistles  are  inscribed  to 
Francis  I  and  to  Renee  de  France.3  Extracts  from  the  more 
familiar  kind  have  already  been  cited  in  connection  with  Fon- 
taine's correspondence  with  his  uncle  Jean  Dugue,4  and  further 
extracts  will  be  given  later  in  treating  what  Fontaine  calls  the 
Passetemps  des  amis,  a  series  of  epistles  exchanged  by  him  and  a 
group  of  friends.5  Fontaine's  familiar  epistles  are  of  little  worth 
as  poetry,  but,  like  the  greater  part  of  his  epigrams,  they  are 
valuable  for  the  light  they  throw  on  their  author  and  on  the 
period  in  which  he  lived.6 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  poetic  forms  proposed  by  Du  Bellay  as 
substitutes  for  those  which  he  declared  were  still  employed  by 
his  contemporaries,  in  order  that  we  may  ascertain  whether 
Fontaine  made  use  of  them  before  the  appearance  of  the 
Defence,  or  whether,  after  its  appearance,  he  tried  to  profit  by 
its  teachings. 

Some  of  the  forms  advocated  by  Du  Bellay  may  be  eliminated 
at  once;  Fontaine  did  not  employ  the  satire,  the  sonnet,7  the 
rustic  eclogue,  the  epic,  comedy,  and  tragedy.  There  remain  the 
epigram  in  imitation  of  Martial;  the  elegy  in  imitation  of  Ovid, 
Tibullus,  and  Proper tius;  the  epistle  in  imitation  of  Horace  and 
Ovid;  the  ode;  and  the  marine  eclogue  in  imitation  of  Sanna- 
zaro.  The  epigram  in  imitation  of  Martial  has  been  treated 
above.  The  other  forms  will  now  be  taken  up  in  order. 

In  his  elegies  (twenty-four  in  number  —  twenty-two  of  which 
are  in  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  —  to  which  must  be  added  nineteen 
epistles  in  the  Fontaine  d'amour),8  Fontaine  was  influenced  by  the 

1  Pp.  100  ff.,  above.  3  Pp.  44  and  50,  above. 

2  Les  Ruisscaux.  *  Pp.  9  ff.,  above.  6  Pp.  210  ff.,  below. 

8  Fontaine's  familiar  epistles  were  all  published  in  1555,  in  the  Ruisseaux,  but 
they  were  written  many  years  earlier. 

7  A  sonnet,  of  which  Fontaine  was  probably  not  the  author,  was  published  in  the 
last  edition  of  Fontaine's  XXI  fcpistres  d'Ovide  (1580). 

8  Cf.  Sibilet,  Art  pottique,  n,  vii:  "  Marot  en  ses  ceuvres,  ou  Pimprimeur  en  son 
nom,  a  distingue  et  mis  a  part  les  episln-s  en  un  reng,  et  les  elegies  en  un  autre. 


178  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Amores  of  Ovid,  by  Catullus,1  and  possibly  by  Tibullus  and 
Propertius;  by  Clement  Marot,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  and 
other  French  poets  with  strong  "  gaulois  "  characteristics;  also 
perhaps  by  some  of  the  Neo-Latin  writers,  such  as  Pontanus  and 
Secundus.  Then,  too,  the  elegies  and  the  epistles  of  the  Fontaine 
d' amour  are  often  couched  in  a  Petrarchistic  style,  with  a  sprink- 
ling of  concetti,  which  proves  that  Maitre  Charles  picked  up  in 
Italy  something  besides  the  four  epigrams  by  Sannazaro. 

Fontaine  imitated  with  fair  success  the  elegy  in  which  Ovid 
laments  the  death  of  the  marvellous  parrot  he  had  presented  to 
his  Corinna.2  In  his  imitation,  Fontaine  departs  somewhat  from 
the  time-honored  theme  —  the  death  of  a  pet.  The  dog  of  one  of 
his  woman  friends  has  been  stolen,  and  there  is  a  suspicion  that 
Maitre  Charles  is  the  culprit.  After  heaping  flattery  on  the  lady 
for  her  grace  and  beauty,  Fontaine  begins  praising  the  lost  dog, 
and  in  what  terms!  Only  the  torments  visited  upon  Actaeon  and 
Linus  could  suffice  to  punish  the  wretch  guilty  of  pilfering  such  a 
matchless  dog.  It  will  be  noticed  that  Corinna's  parrot  and 
Lesbia's  sparrow  are  mentioned  in  Fontaine's  poem. 

.  .  .  Ou  e-st  celuy,  tant  soit  il  inhumain, 

Qui  avansast  sa  malheureuse  main 

Pour  en  rien  nuyre  a  telle  dame  honneste, 

Ou  pour  rober  le  chien  qui  luy  fait  feste  ?  .  .  . 

Veu  doncq  1'acueil  que  m'a  fait,  et  1'honneur, 

Serois  je  pas  trop  plein  de  deshonneur 

De  la  vouloir  par  mon  crime  estranger, 

Luy  faisant  pis  qu'un  barbare  estranger  ? 

Luy  tollissant  ce  que  tant  cher  elle  a, 

Le  petit  chien  qui  la  suyt  ca  et  la, 

Le  petit  chien,  son  cueur,  s'amour,  sa  vie, 

Toutesfois  la  difference  en  est  tant  petite,  qu'il  t'y  faut  aviser  de  bien  pres  pour  la 
discerner." 

1  Ovid  and  Catullus,  as  well  as  Martial,  are  quoted  in  the  dedication  of  the 
Fontaine  d'amour  (cf.  p.  185,  below). 

*  Amores,  ii,  6.  Ovid's  elegy  is  an  imitation  of  the  lament  of  Catullus  over 
Lesbia's  sparrow.  In  the  sixteenth  century  French'  poets  vied  with  each  other  in 
writing  elegies  in  honor  of  pets  of  all  kinds  —  dogs,  cats,  parrots,  sparrows,  weasels, 
etc.  Concerning  such  poems,  see  the  Blanchemain  edition  of  Saint-Gelais's  works, 
vol.  i,  p.  57,  and  p.  60,  note  i. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  179 

Le  petit  chien  qui  1'a  tousjours  suyvie, 

Qui  la  cognoist  mieux  qu'Argus  Ulysses,1 

Et  la  perdant  n'a  jamais  les  yeux  secz: 

Le  petit  chien,  qui  en  son  japement 

Chante  encor  plus  que  Graucis  doucement, 

Digne  d'avoir  (tant  il  est  beau  et  saige) 

De  Publius  la  chienne  en  manage: 

Le  petit  chien  d'amour  tant  bonne  et  pure, 

Digne  d'avoir  apres  mort  sepulture 

Avecq  la  chienne  (helas)  d'Atalenta, 

Que  le  sanglier  trop  cruel  adenta, 

Digne  d'avoir  sa  deploracion 

Et  sa  louange  et  decoracion 

Avecq  1'oyseau  de  1'amye  a  Catulle 

Et  perroquet  qu'Ovide  y  acumule. 

Mais  que  me  vault  purger  de  tel  meffait, 

Veu  qu'on  scait  bien  que  je  ne  1'ay  pas  fait  ? 

Si  je  1'ay  fait,  et  commis  telle  offence, 

Je  sois  menge  des  chiens  pour  recompense: 

Deschiquetants  tous  mes  membres  menuz, 

Comme  jadis  Acteon  et  Linus. 

Or  cognoist  on  par  evidente  yssue 

Qu'on  a  sur  moy  opinion  conceue 

A  bien  grand  tord,  et  par  trop  faulsement: 

Vous  le  scavez  (Dame)  premierement, 

Dame  du  cas,  a  qui  la  chose  touche, 

Dame  du  chien  qui  leche  vostre  bouche, 

Que  pleust  a  Dieu  que  je  disse  aussi  bien, 

Dame  de  moy,  comme  dame  du  chien. 

Vous  1'avez  doncq  recouvre1,  Dieu  mercy: 

Le  chien  est  vostre,  et  je  le  suis  aussi: 

Voire  le  suis,  encor  que  ne  vouliez, 

Et  qu'en  rigueur  tout  au  contraire  alliez: 

Vostre  je  suis  a  vous  faire  plaisir 

Mieux  que  le  chien  qu'avecq  vous  voy  gesir.2 

In  the  following  extract  Petrarchistic  exaggeration  is  most 
pronounced: 

N'y  a  il  point  quelque  pitie  en  femme  ? 
A  tout  le  moins  en  celle  qui  enflamme 
Si  fort  mon  cueur,  que  la  grande  chaleur 

1  The  classical  allusions  in  this  and  other  poems  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour  are 
noteworthy. 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Elegy  ix. 


l8o  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Redondera  a  son  tres  grand  malheur  ? 
Malheur  tres  grand,  si  la  pluye  de  grace 
Dedans  brief  temps  ne  1'estaint  et  efface: 
Car  si  tousjours  il  se  veult  allumer, 
Avant  huict  jours  me  pourroit  consumer. 
Puis  en  la  fin  par  cruelle  vengeance 
Tourner  sur  elle,  et  sans  quelque  al£geance 
Luy  consumer  cueur,  corps,  mammelle,  et  taint. 
Ainsi  soit  il,  si  elle  ne  1'estaint, 
Quand  elle  peult,  a  fin  que  me  resemble, 
Et  que  soyons  tous  deux  bruslez  ensemble 
D'un  mesme  feu  plus  grand  que  cil  d'Ethna.1 

In  the  following  two  passages  a  commonplace  theme  is  orna- 
mented with  a  dash  of  Petrarchistic  phraseology,  the  effect  of 
which  is  very  pleasing: 

Comment  pourrois  en  ce  papier  descrire 
Qu'a  la  lueur  de  sept  ou  huict  flambeaux 
Voy  tes  tetins  qui  me  semblent  tant  beaux  ? 
Ton  nez  longuet,  tes  joues  vermeillettes, 
Ton  beau  taint  frais  plus  que  n'ont  les  fillettes  ? 
Ton  large  front  et  ton  col  cristalin, 
Aussi  le  bord  des  levres  couralin  ? 
Tes  yeux  riants  conduitz  de  telle  forme 
Que  tu  n'as  rien  sur  toy  qui  te  difforme  ? 
Comment  aussi  mettrois  en  prose  ou  vers 
Que  je  te  voy  les  yeux  demy  ouvers 
Tourner  vers  moy,  sans  aucun  semblant  faire, 
Qui  m'y  sembloient  parler  de  quelque  affaire 
A  cil  qui  est  de  franc  cueur  escrivant, 
Souz  grand  espoir  d'estre  bien  arrivant  ?  * 

Le  plaisant  taint  de  ta  luysante  face, 

Ton  large  front  et  ton  col  cristalin, 

Ton  tetin  blanc,  qu'on  void  souz  crespe  ou  lin 

Bien  delie,  ta  levre  rouge  et  saine, 

Dont  vient  et  prend  son  petit  cours  alaine 

Tant  souefve  et  douce,  et  tes  dorez  cheveux, 

Ton  corps  bien  fait,  etc.1 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Elegy  xxi.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  what  Italian 
poets  besides  Sannazaro  influenced  Fontaine.  He  was  probably  acquainted, 
however,  with  the  works  of  Cariteo,  Tebaldeo,  and  Serafinp  dall'  Aquila. 

*  Ibid.,  Elegy  i.  »  Ibid.,  Elegy  xii. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  181 

Sheer  sensuality  is  the  keynote  of  some  of  the  elegies  and 
epistles;  for  example,  Fontaine  writes  to  a  lady  with  whom 
he  has  danced: 

Mais  penses  tu  qu'on  peust  mettre  en  escrit 
Comment  je  t'oy  parler  de  grand  esprit  ? 
Comment  te  voy  vestue  et  comment  nue  ? 
Comment  te  voy  de  corps  gente  et  menue  ? 
Comment  en  cote  et  comment  en  chemise  ? 
Comment  ma  main  sur  ta  chair  blanche  est  mise  ? 
Comment  je  tien  ton  tetin  bien  refait  ? 
Tu  m'en  croyras,  on  n'auroit  jamais  fait. 
Plume  n'y  a  qui  le  peust  bien  escrire, 
Ny  orateur  qui  le  peust  bien  descrire.1 

To  another  lady  Fontaine  expresses  himself  thus: 

Car  de  quoy  sert  faire  tant  de  menees, 
Tant  de  fatras,  et  tant  de  pourmenees  ? 
Tant  deviser,  quand  on  ne  vient  au  poinct  ? 
Tant  requerir,  quand  on  n'acorde  point  ? 
Tant  esperer,  quand  au  bien  on  n'atouche  ? 
Trop  tire  en  vain  qui  one  au  blanc  ne  touche.2 

Elsewhere  Fontaine  shows  that  persistency  in  love  is  not  to  his 
liking: 

Mais  que  me  sert  de  faire  long  proces, 

Pour  envers  toy  avoir  meilleur  acces  ? 

Ce  n'est  mon  fait,  ce  n'est  point  ma  coustume: 

Donne  conge,  si  tu  veux,  a  ma  plume, 

Amour  de  femme  onques  ne  m'a  tente 

De  la  poursuyvre  oultre  sa  volunte.* 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Epistle  iii. 

2  Ibid.,  Elegy  iv. 

3  Ibid.,  Elegy  ii.    Compare  an  epigram  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  A  une  dame  qui 
difffroit  trap: 

Fy  de  longtemps  faire  aux  dames  la  court: 
J'ayme  qu'on  m'ayme,  et  qu'on  le  face  court. 

In  another  epigram  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  Contre  amour,  Fontaine  condemns  love 
completely: 

Amour,  fuy  t'en  au  loing  de  moy, 

Avecq  tous  tes  banquetz  et  pompes: 

Tu  n'es  que  dueil,  peine,  et  esmoy, 

Et  le  meilleur  en  fin  tu  trompes. 


1 82  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Maltre  Charles's  idea  of  the  mission  of  woman,  as  expressed  in 
most  of  the  poems  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  is  summed  up  in  these 
words: 

Aussi  la  femme  est  creature  faite, 

A  fin  que  1'homme  elle  r6cr6e  et  traite.1 

Occasionally,  however,  virtue  is  the  burden  of  his  song: 2 

Car  de  vertu  je  veux  estre  servant, 

Et  la  vertu  je  ne  veux  jamais  taire. 

Tu  es  le  chef  et  le  vray  exemplaire 

De  tout  honneur,  beaute1,  grace,  sgavoir. 

O  grand  miroir  ou  tout  bien  se  peult  voir!  * 

Mais  il  fault  dire,  et  la  chose  est  bien  vraye, 

Que  voz  vertuz  m'ont  fait  ceste  grand'  playe. 

Le  coup  est  grand,  et  plus  grand  qu'il  ne  semble, 

Car  il  me  navre  esprit  et  corps  ensemble  .  .  . 

Vostre  esprit  bon,  vostre  ferme  m6moire, 

Vostre  Constance  et  grand'  vertu  notoire, 

Vostre  douceur  et  humble  privaut6, 

Vostre  cueur  plein  de  grande  loyaute, 

Vostre  sagesse  et  bonne  contenance, 

Me  font  de  vous  1'amour  et  souvenance  .  .  . 

Ah!  dit  mon  cueur,  fault  il  que  sa  vertu 

Me  rende  ainsi  confus  et  abatu  ? 

O  Dieu!  fault  il  (voicy  une  grand'  chose) 

Que  son  grand  bien  soit  de  mon  grand  mal  cause  ?  * 

Now  and  then  Maitre  Charles  is  grossly  materialistic;  for 
instance,  when  he  thanks  a  lady  whom  he  had  accompanied  to  a 
dance  for  the  excellent  food  they  had  received: 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Epistle  xix. 

2  In  an  epigram  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  Au  lecteur,  Fontaine  says  that  he  does 
not  wish  to  sing  of  sensual  love  and  of  virtue  in  the  same  volume: 

Estre  ne  veux  en  mesme  livre 
Spirituel  et  terrien: 
Puis  1'amour,  puis  la  vertu  suyvre, 
Brouillant  le  mal  avecq  le  bien. 
Mais  les  anciens  le  font  bien, 
Qui  ont  vescu  tant  bien  prosperes. 
De  tout  cela  n'ignore  rien: 
Mais  je  ne  veux  suyvre  mes  peres. 

1  Ibid.,  Epistle  ii.  4  Ibid.,  Elegy  xxii. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  183 

O  quelle  grande  chere 
La  on  nous  fait!    Un  chacun  met  enchere 
A  qui  mieux  mieux,  surviennent  metz  sur  metz: 
De  te  servir  sur  tout  je  m'entremetz: 
Et  quand  ce  vint  a  presenter  1'yssue, 
En  vismes  un  le  ventre  au  feu  qui  sue. 
Apres  les  metz  partiz  deca,  dela, 
Chacun  repeu,  nous  levasmes  de  la, 
Ayants  bien  veu  les  jardins  et  mesnage  .  .  . 

Mais  partant  de  ce  lieu, 
En  mon  chemin  je  vous  fis  mon  a  Dieu 
De  bouche,  et  plus  de  cueur,  et  de  bon  zele, 
Disant  en  moy:  C'a  este  de  par  elle, 
Qu'au  lieu  plaisant  avons  este"  traitez, 
Et  qu'on  nous  a  si  bons  metz  aprestez.1 

At  times  Fontaine,  the  strict  disciple  of  Clement  Marot, 
appears;  for  example,  when  he  denies  that  Cupid  and  lovers  are 
blind,  —  lines  which  must  remind  the  reader  of  the  Response  to 
Papillon's  Victoire  et  triumphe  d' Argent  and  of  parts  of  the 
Contr'amye  de  Court: 

C'est  bien  menty,  c'est  bien  menty  de  dire  .  .  . 

Que  Cupido  a  les  deux  yeux  bendez, 

Si  que  jamais  ne  luy  sont  debendez, 

Et  mesmement  que  les  deux  yeux  il  bende 

A  toutes  gents,  lesquelz  sont  de  sa  bende, 

Veu  qu'il  n'y  a  ca  bas  plus  cler  voyants, 

Ny  plus  au  vif  leur  regard  employants. 

Ne  voyent  ilz  sur  chevalier  ou  dame 

Le  moindre  si,  qui  face  ou  corps  diffame  ? 

Ne  voyent  ilz,  etc.2 

Fontaine  even  lapses  so  much  into  the  old  style  that  he  resorts 
to  allegory: 

Belle,  pour  qui  a  tord  suis  acuse, 

Et  toutesfois  de  nul  suis  excuse, 

Fors  de  celuy  qui  seul  cognoist  les  cueurs: 

Ne  vois  tu  point  je  ne  scay  quelz  moqueurs  .  .  . 

Qui  ton  amant  me  viennent  surnommer  ?  .  .  . 

Si  celle  la  par  qui  recompense  a 

Cil  qu'on  acuse  a  grand  tord  et  sans  cause, 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Elegy  iii.  *  Ibid.,  Elegy  vii. 


1 84  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Dame  Raison,  avoit  ouy  la  cause 
Par  V£rite,  nostre  bonne  avocate, 
Retireroit  soudain  sa  faulse  pate 
Fol  Jugement,  1'avocat  aversaire, 
Ou  plainement  seroit  trouve  faulsaire.1 

The  Fontaine  d'amour,  which  contains  these  elegies  and  epistles, 
as  well  as  Fontaine's  epigrams  in  imitation  of  Martial,  his  trans- 
lation of  four  epigrams  by  Sannazaro,  and  several  references  to  his 
Italian  journey,  is,  as  M.  Laumonier  remarks,  "  tres  important 
pour  1'histoire  de  1'evolution  de  la  poesie  franchise  dans  les  dix 
annees  qui  ont  precede  1'apparition  des  premieres  ceuvres  de 
1'ecole  erudite  de  1550.  Le  ton  erotique  et  mythologique  de  ce 
recueil  est  assez  souvent  deja  celui  auquel  Ronsard  se  haussa."  2 
Fontaine,  as  we  have  seen,  was  aware  of  the  sportive,  licentious 
nature  of  his  work.  In  the  dedicatory  epistle  to  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  he  says: 

J'ay  pris  la  hardiesse  de  vous  offrir  ce  present  petit  livret,  contenant 
aucuns  esbatz  et  passetemps  de  ma  petite  Muse  en  sa  jeunesse.3  Mais  si 
quelques  gents  d'esprit  stoiques,  et  de  jugement  trop  severes,  me  veulent 

1  La  Fontaine  d'amour,  Elegy  x.     Practically  all  the  elegies  and  epistles  of  the 
Fontaine  d'amour  are  addressed  to  women.    The  themes  include  the  following: 
praise  of  the  beauty  of  various  women;  praise  of  Cupid  and  of  love;  praise  of 
dancing  as  an  amusement;  praise  of  maternity  as  compared  with  virginity;  tor- 
tures of  love;  cruelty  of  the  beloved;   rebuke  of  a  faithless  maiden;  grief  at 
separation  from  the  beloved;  request  for  a  rendezvous;  the  poet  complains  that 
a  lady  refuses  to  write  to  him;  the  poet  reminds  a  lady  that  they  used  to  play 
together  when  children,  and  exhorts  her  to  love  him  now. 

2  P.  Laumonier,  Ronsard  poete  lyrique,  p.  93,  note  2.    M.  Laumonier  (ibid.,  p. 
616)  mentions,  among  other  works,  the  Fontaine  d'amour  as  containing  "  courtes 
pieces,  de  gout  moiti6  gaulois,  moitig  pr6cieux,  .  .  .  ayant  a  divers  degr£s  subi 
1'influence  de  Thfiocrite,  de  I'Anthologie,  de  Catulle,  de  Martial,  d'Ausone,  et  suivi 
le  mouvement  de  la  Renaissance  neo-latine  et  italienne."     In  another  passage 
(ibid.,  p.  293)  M.  Laumonier  says:  "Nous  avons  vu  qu'en  depit  de  ses  affirma- 
tions r6iter£es  il  [Ronsard]  n'eiait  pas  le  premier  &  transplanter  dans  le  sol  national 
des  fleurs  eirangeres  pour  les  y  acclimater.    Lemaire  de  Beiges,  Clement  Marot, 
Hugues  Salel,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  Lazare  de  Baif,  Charles  Fontaine,  Desp£- 
riers  et  Peletier  .  .  .  1'avaient  devanc6  dans  cette  voie." 

3  Elsewhere  in  the  dedicatory  epistle  Fontaine  speaks  of  the  poems  of  the  Fon- 
taine d'amour  as  "  les  choses  imparfaites  que  j'ay  escrites  en  ma  grande  jeunesse  "; 
and  in  Epistle  i  he  writes  similarly.    Despite  these  declarations,  there  is  no  doubt 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLEIADE  185 

reprendre  de  mettre  en  lumiere  ces  petites  choses  joyeuses,  traitans  d'amours, 
je  leur  puis  respondre  que  je  ne  suis  seul,  ny  le  premier.  Car  les  anciens  et 
modernes,  tant  Francoys  que  Latins,  1'ont  bien  fait  sans  aucune  reprehen- 
sion, ains  avecq  fruict  et  honneur. 

In  the  same  epistle,  Maitre  Charles  contends  that  it  is  possible 
for  a  poet  to  write  of  "  voluptez  et  lascivitez  "  without  being 
guilty  of  impudicity: 

Aussi  ne  doit  on  pas  legierement  juger  de  la  personne  qui  escrit  telles 
choses  d'amour,  joyeuses  et  recreatives,  plus  que  vicieuses:  principalement 
d'un  poete,  en  1'esprit  duquel  y  a  tousjours  je  ne  sgay  quoy  de  gayete  natu- 
relle,  sans  laquelle  (j'ose  dire)  ne  se  peult  appeler  poete:  et  de  la  vient  que 
anciennement  les  poetes  ont  feint  et  invente  plusieurs  choses  plaisantes  pour 
avoir  matiere  et  occasion  d'escrire :  comme  des  Nymphes  des  bois,  des  fleurs, 
des  fleuves,  des  neuf  Muses,  qui  s'entretiennent  par  la  main  et  dansent  sur  la 
verdure,  du  mont  Helicon  et  de  Parnassus,  d'Apollon  qui  joue  de  la  harpe,  de 
Bacchus  tousjours  jeune  et  joyeux,  de  Venus,  de  Cupido,  de  Pan,  des  Faunes, 
et  des  Satyres,  qui  ont  avec  eux  quelques  voluptez  et  lascivitez  non  a  des- 
priser  en  poesie. 

To  support  his  contention  that  a  poet's  life  may  be  pure  in  spite 
of  his  licentious  verses  Fontaine  cites  Catullus : 

Nam  castum  esse  decet  pium  poetam 
Ipsum;  versiculos  nihil  necesse  est.1 
Ovid: 

Crede  mihi,  mores  distant  a  carmine  nostro : 
Vita  verecunda  est,  Musa  jocosa  mihi. 

that  nearly  all  the  poems  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour  were  written  during  or  after  his 
Italian  journey,  that  is,  during  or  after  his  twenty-sixth  year.  Elegy  xxii  and 
several  epigrams  contain  references  to  the  Italian  journey;  the  greater  part  of  the 
epigrams  are  inscribed  to  people  of  Lyons,  where  Fontaine  took  up  his  residence 
immediately  after  the  Italian  journey;  and,  finally,  the  influence  of  Italian  writers 
is  evident  in  many  of  the  poems.  Ronsard,  in  the  dedication  of  his  Livret  de  Folas- 
tries  (April,  1553),  a  work  certainly  influenced  by  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  also  says 
that  his  "  sornettes  "  and  "  mignardes  chansonnettes,"  his  "  vers  raillars,"  were 
composed  when  he  was  a  "  jeune  garson  ";  Marc-Antoine  de  Muret,  in  his  Juve- 
nilia (1552),  alleges  youth  as  an  excuse  for  the  broadness  of  his  verses;  and  the 
preface  of  Marot's  Adolescence  Clementine  (1532)  begins  thus:  "  Je  ne  scay  .  .  . 
qui  m'a  plus  incit6  a  mettre  ces  miennes  petites  jeunesses  en  lumiere  .  .  .  Ce  sont 
ceuvres  de  jeunesse,  ce  sont  coups  d'essay." 

1  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  Ronsard  later  placed  this  distich  on  the  title  page 
of  his  Livret  de  Folas tries. 


1 86  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Martial: 

Lasciva  est  nobis  pagina,  vita  proba  est. 

And  Hadrian's  epitaph  on  the  poet  Voconius: 
Lascivus  versu,  mente  pudicus  eras. 

Despite  the  influence  of  the  elegies  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour 
on  Ronsard's  Livret  de  Folastries,  it  is  certain  that  they  were  not 
the  kind  of  elegies  Du  Bellay  wished  the  future  poet  to  write.  In 
recommending  Ovid  as  a  model,  he  had  in  mind  not  the  lighter 
poems  of  the  Amores,1  but  the  doleful  Tristia  and  Epistolae  e 
Ponto,  or,  in  the  Amores,  the  elegy  on  the  death  of  Tibullus2 
—  "  pitiful  elegies,"  embellished  with  mythology. 

Of  the  last  named  poem  Fontaine  composed  a  highly  successful 
imitation,  Megie  sur  le  trespas  de  Catherine  Fontaine,  sceur  de 
Vautheur?  All  the  characteristics  of  Ovid's  elegy  are  found  in 
Fontaine's:  the  lofty  tone;  the  impression  of  the  true  sorrow  of 
the  poet  somewhat  marred  by  literary  artificiality;  the  abun- 
dance of  mythological  references;  the  lamentations;  and  the 
description  of  pagan  mourning  and  funeral  rites.  In  only  one 
instance  does  Fontaine  use  anything  like  the  exact  phraseology  of 
Ovid.  His  imitation  is  as  perfect  an  example  of  the  free  imitation 
recommended  by  Du  Bellay  as  can  be  found  before  the  Pleiade. 
Maitre  Charles  devoured,  digested,  and  assimilated  Ovid's  poem, 
and  then  tried  to  write  a  similar  poem.  When  the  definitive 
history  of  the  revival  of  pagan  ideas  in  the  French  Renaissance  is 
written,  Fontaine's  elegy  on  the  death  of  his  sister,  as  well  as  the 
Fontaine  d 'amour,  must  be  taken  into  account.  Fontaine's  elegy, 
with  some  parallel  citations  from  Ovid's,  follows: 

1  Sibilet,  who  thought  Marot  a  better  model  for  elegies  than  Ovid,  recommended 
the  Amores  (Art  pottique,  n,  vii):  "  Or  si  tu  requiers  exemples  d'e!6gies,  propose 
toy  pour  formulaire  celles  d'Ovide  escrittes  en  ses  trois  livres  d' 'Amours:  ou  mieus 
ly  les  elegies  de  Marot:  desquelles  la  bonne  part  reprfisente  tant  vivement  1'image 
d'Ovide,  qu'il  ne  s'en  faut  que  la  parole  du  naturel." 

*  ra,  9. 

1  Although  published  in  the  Ruisseaux  (1555),  p.  49,  this  poem  was  written 
either  during  or  shortly  after  Fontaine's  Italian  journey  (about  1540).  Concerning 
Catherine  Fontaine,  see  p.  53,  note  2,  above. 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  187 

Las,  elle  est  morte,  elle  est  en  terre  mise, 
Celle  que  Dieu,  voire  seule,  a  permise 
Vivre  avec  moy,  apres  tout  frere  et  soeur, 
Et  apres  pere  et  mere:  or  est  il  seur, 
Las,  elle  est  morte,  et  en  terre  boutee.1 
Mercure  avec  sa  verge  redoutee 
De  tous  esprits,  Mercure,  aime  des  dieux, 
Son  cler  esprit  a  conduit  es  hauts  cieux.2 
Arriere  pleurs  donques,  Fontaine,  arriere: 
Pourquoy  es  tu  convertie  en  riviere  ? 

Or  say  je  bien  que  quand  je  chanterois 
Mieux  qu'Orpheus,3  ne  la  retirerois 
De  la  puissance  et  charge  de  Mercure, 
Qui,  en  ce  cas,  de  m'exausser  n'a  cure: 
Et  si  say  bien  qu'elle  a  son  mal  vaincu, 
Par  qui  elle  a  plus  languy  que  vescu 
Cinq  ou  six  ans:  mais  1'amour  fraternelle 
Ne  me  sauroit  deffaillir  envers  elle. 
C'est  ceste  amour  qui  1'arrose  en  mes  pleurs, 
Et  1'arrosant  augmente  mes  douleurs: 
C'est  ceste  amour,  sur  toutes  principale, 
Qui  m'a  rendu  esploure,  triste,  et  palle: 
C'est  ceste  amour,  que  nature  enracine, 
Qui  de  nion  poing  fait  batre  ma  poictrine, 
Et  qui  me  fait  avec  pleurs  souspirer, 
Tant  que  ne  puis  mon  aleine  tirer.4 

Si  Aurora  et  Tethys,  grans  deesses, 
Du  ciel  et  mer  regentes  et  princesses, 
Ont  tant  pleure  Achilles  et  Memnon,5 

1  Ille  tui  vates  operis,  tu  fama,  Tibullus 
Ardet  in  extructo,  corpus  inane,  rogo. 

2  Si  tamen  e  nobis  aliquid  nisi  nomen  et  umbra 
Restat,  in  Elysia  valle  Tibullus  erit. 

3  Quid  pater  Ismario,  quid  mater  profuit  Orpheo  ? 
Carmine  quid  victas  obstipuisse  feras  ? 

*  Ecce,  puer  Veneris  fert  eversamque  pharetram 
Et  fractos  arcus  et  sine  luce  facem; 
Adspice,  demissis  ut  eat  miserabilis  alis 
Pectoraque  infesta  tundat  aperta  manu; 
Excipiunt  lacrimas  sparsi  per  colla  capilli, 
Oraque  singultu  c'oncutiente  sonant. 

8  Compare  the  opening  lines  of  Ovid's  elegy: 
Memnona  si  mater,  mater  ploravit  Achillem, 
Et  tangunt  magnas  tristia  fata  deas, 
Flebilis  indignos,  Elegeia,  solve  capillos! 


l88  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Puis  je  ne  pleindre  et  ne  pleurer  ?    Ha,  non! 

Et  si  encor  du  grand  souleil  les  filles 

Ont  eu  les  yeux  a  pleurer  tant  faciles 

Dessus  leur  frere,  abysme  sans  secours, 

Qu'en  arbre  humide,  et  qui  pleure  tousjours, 

Mue"es  sont : 1  qui  me  pourra  deffendre 

De  ne  pleurer  ma  soeur,  ja  terre  et  cendre  ? 

Toy,  son  espoux,  pleure  sur  ton  espouse: 2 

Et  moy,  son  frere,  autant  que  dix  ou  douze 

Dessus  ma  soeur  je  pleureray  sans  cesse. 

Or  sus,  aliens  tous  deux  pleins  de  tristesse, 

Vestuz,  helas!  de  noirs  habitz  non  ceintz, 

Les  yeux  de  pleurs,  les  cceurs  de  regretz  pleins, 

Chanter  sus  elle  un  piteux  requiem. 

Allons  offrir  a  Pluton  1'ancien 

Vin  avec  laict,  noirs  moutons,  et  brebis. 

Allons  en  deuil  et  de  cceurs  et  d'habitz 

Ses  beaux  os  blancs  recueillir  tous  ensemble, 

Avec  la  main  qui  toute  de  deuil  tremble: 

Puis  les  mettans  en  beau  coffre  de  marbre, 

Pres  d'un  cypres,  qui  est  douloureux  arbre, 

Les  baignerons  en  pleurs,  en  laict,  et  vin, 

Entremeslans  ce  service  divin  * 

De  telz  regretz:  Or  es  tu  trespassee,4 

Et  comme  fleur  or  es  tu  tost  passee. 

Encor  n'avois  ton  cours  demy  parfaict, 

Quand  fauce  mort  ce  meschant  tour  t'a  fait: 

Encor  n'avoit  la  ride  fait  ouvrage 

A  ton  bening  et  ton  tendre  visage: 

1  The  Heliades  were  so  grieved  at  the  death  of  their  brother  Phaethon  that  they 
were  changed  by  the  gods  into  poplars,  and  their  tears  into  amber.  (Ovid,  Meta- 
morphoses, ii.) 

8  With  this  and  the  following  lines  compare: 

Hinc  certe  madidos  fugientis  pressit  ocellos 

Mater  et  in  cineres  ultima  dona  tulit; 

Hinc  soror  in  partem  misera  cum  matre  doloris 

Venit  inomatas  dilaniata  comas, 

Cumque  tuis  sua  iunxerunt  Nemesisque  priorque 

Oscula  nee  solos  destituere  rogos. 

Delia  descendens,  etc. 

*  Fontaine's  description  of  the  "  divine  service  "  seems  to  be  derived  from 
various  sources,  perhaps  from  the  Aeneid,  vi,  175  ff.,  with  details  from  the  Aeneid, 
v,  77  ff .,  and  Ovid's  Trislia,  iii,  13  ff. 
4  Compare  Ovid's  apostrophe: 

Tene,  sacer  vates,  flammae  rapuere  rogales, 
Pectoribus  pasci  nee  timuere  tub  ? 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLFJADE  189 

Cire  n'avoit  bord6  tes  yeux  si  bons, 
Ny  la  blancheur  gaste  tes  cheveux  blonds. 
Maudite  mort,  tousjours  tes  noires  ailes 
Abbatront  ilz  les  choses  les  plus  belles  ?  1 

Outre  ceux  la  tant  de  regretz  diray 
Qu'autour  de  moy  tout  1'air  j'en  rempliray. 
Ma  seule  sceur,  non  plus  soeur,  car  je  suis 
Frere  sans  soeur,  di  pourquoy  tant  me  fuis. 
Tu  n'avois  pas  demy  parfait  ton  aage 
Quand  Lachesis  trop  lasche  de  courage 
Ne  voulut  plus  desvuider  le  beau  fil 
Tant  delie,  tant  blanc,  et  tant  subtil: 
Lors  Atropos  par  trop  pleine  d'envie 
S'en  vint  couper  ce  beau  fil  de  ta  vie.2 

Pourquoy  m'es  tu  tant  contraire,  6  fortune, 
Quand  apres  tout  tu  m'en  as  fait  perdre  une, 
Une  de  corps  qui  valoit  dix  de  cceur  ?  .  .  . 
Fontaine,  helas!  depuis  que  tu  fus  ne 
Or  es  tu  bien  au  monde  fortune. 
Mais  si  j'ay  veu  quelque  temps  si  prospere 
Que  frere  estois,  ores  ne  suis  plus  frere: 
Car  j'ay  perdu  le  reste  de  mes  soeurs, 
Qui  me  sera  commencement  de  pleurs.3 

In  his  advice  to  future  poets,  Du  Bellay  says  concerning  odes: 

Chante  moy  ces  odes,  incogneues  encor'  de  la  Muse  francoyse,  d'un  luc 
bien  accorde  au  son  de  la  lyre  greque  et  romaine:  et  qu'il  n'y  ait  vers  ou 
n'aparoisse  quelque  vestige  de  rare  et  antique  erudition.  Et  quand  a  ce,  te 
fourniront  de  matiere  les  louanges  des  dieux  et  des  homines  vertueux,  le 
discours  fatal  des  choses  mondaines,  la  solicitude  des  jeunes  hommes,  comme 
Pamour,  les  vins  libres,  et  toute  bonne  chere.  Sur  toutes  choses,  prens  garde 

1  Scilicet  omne  sacrum  mors  importuna  profanat, 
Omnibus  obscuras  inicit  ilia  manus! 

2  Cum  rapiunt  mala  fata  bonos  (ignoscite  fasso!) 
Sollicitor  nullos  esse  putare  deos. 

Vive  pius:  moriere;  pius  cole  sacra:  colentem 

Mors  gravis  a  templis  in  cava  busta  trahet; 

Carminibus  confide  bonis:  iacet,  ecce,  Tibullus; 

Vix  manet  e  toto  parva  quod  urna  capit. 

*  Concerning  Fontaine's  elegies,  M.  Chamard  says:  "  Le  talent  modeste  de 
Fontaine  6tait  a  1'aise  dans  ce  genre:  c'est  peut-etre  lit  qu'il  a  le  mieux  rfiussi:  on 
peut  compter  parmi  ses  ceuvres  les  plus  heureuses  les  deux  pieces  qu'il  composa  sur 
la  mort  de  sa  soeur  Catherine  et  sur  le  tr£pas  de  son  fils  Renfi  "  (Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de 
la  France,  1898,  p.  62).  For  the  elegy  on  the  death  of  Ren6,  see  p.  124,  above. 


MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

que  ce  genre  de  poeme  soit  61oingn6  du  vulgaire,  enrichy  et  illustr6  de  motz 
propres  et  £pithetes  non  oisifz,  orne  de  graves  sentences,  et  vari6  de  toutes 
manieres  de  couleurs  et  ornementz  poeliques. 

In  short,  the  ode  was  to  be  learned,  lofty  in  style,  and  imitated 
from  or  inspired  by  Pindar  or  Horace;  the  subjects  treated  were 
to  be  heroic  and  mythological,  philosophic  and  moral,  erotic  and 
bacchic.1 

Fontaine  tried  to  follow  Du  Bellay's  advice,  and  the  result  was, 
to  say  the  least,  most  lamentable.  His  odes  —  some  fifty  in 
number,  the  first  of  which  appeared  in  1554 2  —  were  addressed 
to  Flora,  to  various  prelates  and  noblemen,  to  the  Rh6ne  and  the 
Sa6ne,  to  the  poet's  Muse,  to  death.  Although,  as  Goujet  has 
observed,  "  it  is  surely  not  his  odes  that  will  immortalize  his 
name,"  I  shall,  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  call  attention  to  a 
few  of  them. 

In  some  of  Fontaine's  odes,  the  influence  of  Horace  is  evident; 
for  example,  in  the  following  ode  to  his  Muse: 

Muse,  ma  deesse  honoree, 

De  qui  ma  plume  est  la  mignonne, 

Par  elle  seras  reverse 

Ainsi  qu'une  sacree  nonne: 

Par  toy  j'ay  un  nom  qui  s'abille 
Tout  de  plumes,  pour  son  vol  prendre, 
Et  s'en  va  16ger  et  habile 
Loing  se  faire  voir  et  entendre: 

Par  toy  mes  petis  vers  verdissent, 
Et,  tousjours  verds,  tu  les  fais  croistre 
Aux  beaux  champs  qui  tousjours  florissent 
Benistz  par  ta  sainte  main  dextre. 

Mieux  que  Medee  et  que  la  Circe 
Tu  rajeunis  et  tu  transmues: 
Comme  le  hault  poete  Dirce 
Qu'en  un  aigle,  ains  phenix,  tu  mues. 

1  Cf.  La  Defence,  Chamard  edition,  pp.  208  S. 

2  In  the  Nouvelles  et  antiques  meneilles.    Fontaine's  other  odes  appeared  hi  the 
Ruisseaux  (1555),  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes  (1557),  and  the  Sentences  du  poete 
Ausone  (1558). 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  191 

Encor,  pour  un  Evident  signe, 
Tu  me  transmues  en  aloete, 
En  rossignol,  en  un  blanc  cigne, 
Qui  a  la  voix  d'un  doux  poete.1 

Horace's  numerous  poems  on  the  vanity  of  life  and  the  ap- 
proach of  inevitable  death  may  have  led  Fontaine  to  express 
himself  thus  in  many  of  his  odes: 

Nuds  nous  venons,  nuds  nous  aliens, 
Et  la  mort  nue  a  noz  talons 
Nous  suit,  nous  menace,  et  nous  presse, 
Jusque  qu'en  la  fosse  nous  laisse.2 

Like  Horace,  Fontaine  regrets  the  depravity  of  his  time: 

Voyant  les  gens  tant  aveuglez, 
Apres  le  vice  allans  si  vite, 
Si  depravez,  si  desreiglez, 
Souvent  je  souhaite  estre  hermite.3 

Like  Horace,  too,  Fontaine  not  only  regrets  the  degradation  of 
his  fellow  men,  but  he  proffers  advice  which,  if  followed,  may  lift 
them  from  the  mire,  and  make  them  good  citizens;  for  instance, 
in  a  long  ode,  Exhortation  a  Messieurs  de  la  Justice  et  du  Consulat 
de  la  mile  de  Lion,  pour  le  bien  et  honneur,  augmentation,  et  conser- 
vation d'icelle.* 

In  an  ode  inscribed  to  Jean  Brinon,5  Fontaine  seems  to  have 
sought  inspiration  in  Ronsard's  ode  to  Michel  de  PHospital.6  At 
Brinon's  birth,  says  Fontaine,  the  Muses  become  interested  in 
him,  and  Apollo,  through  an  oracle,  proclaims: 

Car  luy  (dit  il)  tiendra  ma  place 
Dessus  le  mont  Parisien, 
Luy  qui  a  la  grace  et  la  face 
De  moy  Phebus  Thessalien. 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  133.    In  a  long  ode,  L'Auteur  presagit  et  quasi  privoit  son 
immortalitt  par  sa  Muse  (ibid.,  p.  153),  Fontaine  gives  a  most  ridiculous  version 
of  Horace's  ode  to  Maecenas,  Non  usitata  nee  tenuiferar,  etc.  (ii,  20),  the  theme 
of  which  is  the  transformation  of  the  poet  into  a  swan. 

2  Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone,  p.  40.    Cf.  Horace,  ii,  3;  ii,  14;  ii,  18,  etc. 

3  Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone,  p.  59. 

4  Odes,  tnigmes,  et  epigrammes,  p.  105.  *  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  127. 
6  Marty-Laveaux  edition  of  Ronsard's  works,  vol.  ii,  p.  119. 


192  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Apollo  allows  the  Muses  to  remain  in  Paris,  where  they  take  care 
of  Brinon.  Out  of  gratitude,  Brinon  gives  the  Muses  "  his  own 
wealth  and  revenue,"  which  so  pleases  them  that  they  choose  to 
dwell  in  Paris,  and  not  to  return  to  the  "  Thessalian  mount." 

The  influence  of  Ronsard,  the  most  successful  writer  of  odes  of 
the  time,  is  also  noticeable  in  Fontaine's  choice  of  metrical 
schemes.  Fontaine's  stanzas  offer  a  great  variety  of  meters. 
They  vary  from  the  simple  stanza  of  lines  of  six  syllables  riming 
abab,  aabaab,  or  abaab,  of  eight  syllables  riming  abab,  aabb,  or 
ababb,  and  of  ten  syllables  riming  abab,  to  such  intricate  com- 
binations as  aabccb  (7,3,7,7,3,7  syllables)  and  aabaab  (4,  4,  8,  4, 
4,  8  syllables).  Strangely  enough,  it  is  in  the  more  complicated 
metrical  structures  that  Fontaine  secured  the  best  results.1 

For  the  remaining  form  of  poetry  recommended  by  Du  Bellay 
and  used  by  Fontaine,  the  marine  or  piscatory  eclogue,  Du  Bellay 
suggested  as  a  model  Jacopo  Sannazaro.2 

Like  the  greater  part  of  the  forms  recommended  by  Du  Bellay, 
the  marine  eclogue  was  employed  in  France  before  the  appearance 

1  That  Fontaine  could  at  times,  when  backed  by  Horace  and  Ronsard,  compose 
a  tolerable  ode  is  shown  by  the  long  one,  A  son  amy  qui  le  preschoit  de  vacquer  aux 
biens  el  honneurs  de  ce  monde  (Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone,  p.  46).    Horace's  aurea 
mediocritas  furnishes  the  theme.    The  metrical  scheme  may  be  found  in  Ronsard, 
Blanchemain  edition,  vol.  ii,  p.  190,  A  Mgr  Charles,  due  d'Orleans. 

2  Cf.  Campaux,  De  ecloga  piscatoria  qualem  a  veteribus  adumbralum  absolvere  sibi 
proposuerit  Sannazarius,  1859;  G.  Rosalba,  Le  Egloghe  Pescatorie  di  J.  Sannazaro, 
Naples,   1908;     W.  P.  Mustard,  The  Piscatory  Eclogues  of  Jacopo  Sannazaro, 
Baltimore,   1914.  —  Sannazaro's  piscatory  eclogues  —  Phyllis,  Galatea,  Mopsus, 
Proteus,  and  Herpylis  Pharmaceutria  —  were  first  printed  at  Naples  in   1526. 
"Sannazaro's  Latin  Eclogues,"  says  Mr.  Mustard  (p.  n),  "follow  the  regular 
Virgilian  forms  very  closely,  and  their  subjects  are  the  regular  traditional  subjects 
—  the  dirge,  the  lover's  complaint,  the  singing-match,  etc.    But  the  Virgilian  con- 
ventions are  so  far  modified  that  the  pastoral  eclogue  becomes  a  piscatory  eclogue, 
or  an  idyl  of  fishermen.     The  singers  are  no  longer  shepherds,  but  fishermen,  and 
the  scene  is  no  longer  Sicily  or  Arcadia,  but  the  Bay  of  Naples.    The  wood-nymphs 
are  transformed  into  sea-nymphs,  the  rustic  gods  into  gods  of  the  sea.    Instead  of 
flocks  and  herds,  the  speakers  talk  of  boats  and  fishing-nets  and  lobster-pots,  and 
instead  of  flowers  and  fruits,  the  lover's  gifts  are  oysters  and  shells  and  pearls  and 
coral."    Cf.  ibid.,  p.  14:    "  In  his  Piscatory  Eclogues,  Sannazaro  professed  to  be 
playing  the  part  of  a  pioneer  .  .  .    This  claim  ignores  certain  of  the  Idyls  of  Theoc- 
ritus (vi,  xi,  xxi),  an  author  whom  Sannazaro  knew  very  well." 


FONTAINE  AND  THE  PLfilADE  193 

of  the  Defence.  In  an  Eclogue  marine  published  in  1539,  Hugues 
Salel  mourned  the  death  of  Francis  of  Valois,  eldest  son  of  Francis 
I.  During  the  dialogue,  two  mariners,  Merlin  and  Brodeau 
(Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais  and  Victor  Brodeau)  do  not  allow  their 
grief  at  the  death  of  the  young  prince  to  prevent  them  from 
showering  extravagant  praises  upon  each  other.1 

It  is  probable  that  Charles  Fontaine  also  wrote  a  marine 
eclogue  before  1549.  In  the  Ruisseaux 2  he  published  an  Eclogue 
marine,  ou  sont  introduitz  deux  nautonniers,  Hugues  Salel  et 
Charles  Fontaine,  a  poem  doubtless  inspired  by  that  of  Salel.3 
Fontaine's  eclogue  is  preceded  by  the  following  dizain  Au  Roy, 
which  contains  the  burden  of  the  eclogue: 

Le  nautonnier  qu'on  appelle  Fontaine, 

Le  nautonnier  qui  jeune  tant  vogua 

Que  seulement  luy  reste  mal  et  peine 

Du  sort  facheux  qui  trop  le  fatiga, 

Tristement  chante,  et  fait  cette  eclogu'a 

Pour  declarer  sa  fortune  improspere 

A  vous,  son  Roy,  en  qui  seul  il  espere: 

Sire,  oyez  done  ses  vceuz,  plaintes,  requestes, 

Vous  qui  rendez  la  terre  et  mer  prospere, 

Vous  qui  trois  foys  plus  grand  que  Neptune  estes. 

Fontaine  opens  the  dialogue  by  commenting  on  Salel's  astonish- 
ment at  his  having  laid  aside  his  pen,  he,  the  sweet  singer  who 
formerly  caused  the  naiads  to  thrill  with  pleasure.  He  explains 
the  cause  of  his  silence.  In  his  youth  many  were  the  rivers  he 
sailed  upon,  the  Rh6ne  and  the  Sa6ne,  the  Meuse  and  the  Mo- 
selle, the  Loire,  the  Seine,  the  Marne,  the  Po,  and  even  the  sea; 
but  now,  alas!  the  winds  and  the  waves  have  shattered  his  once 
sturdy  bark,  adversity  has  forced  him  to  seek  the  haven  of  rest. 
Salel  tries  to  comfort  the  downcast  mariner,  and,  after  consider- 
able reflection,  hits  upon  a  means  of  relief:  Neptune  (the  king),4 

1  Concerning  Salel's  eclogue,  see  Goujet,  Bibl.  franc.,  vol.  xii,  p.  10. 

2  P.  39i- 

3  Fr.  Torraca,  in  GV  Imitatori  stranieri  di  J.  Sannazaro,  does  not  mention  the 
marine  eclogues  of  Salel  and  Fontaine,  and  Mr.  Mustard  seems  not  to  have  known 
that  of  Fontaine. 

4  Either  Francis  I  or  Henry  II. 


194  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

who  has  helped  so  many  storm-tossed  seamen,  cannot  refuse  to 
lend  a  hand  to  such  a  faithful  subject  as  Fontaine.  Maitre 
Charles  decides  to  appeal  to  the  monarch's  generosity.  How- 
ever, should  assistance  fail  to  come  soon,  he  feels  that  he  must 
seek  a  sepulchre  in  the  waters  he  has  loved  for  so  many  long  and 
weary  years. 

We  have  now  seen  that,  of  the  poetic  forms  condemned  by  Du 
Bellay,  Fontaine  employed  only  the  "  familiar  and  domestic  " 
epistle,  and  that,  of  the  forms  recommended,  he  anticipated  Du 
Bellay's  teachings  in  so  far  as  the  following  are  concerned:  the 
epigram  in  imitation  of  Martial;  the  elegy  (and  epistle)  in 
imitation  of  Ovid;  and  probably  the  marine  eclogue  in  imitation 
of  Sannazaro;  and  we  have  seen  that  he  endeavored  —  in  a  most 
sorry  manner,  it  is  true  —  to  follow  Du  Bellay's  advice  by  com- 
posing odes.  Let  us  now  consider  a  kind  of  literature  which 
Du  Bellay  professed  especially  to  abhor,  and  which  Fontaine 
employed  extensively  —  the  translation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TRANSLATOR 

Grammarians  and  translators  of  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  —  The 
opinions  of  Du  Bellay,  of  Sibilet,  and  of  Fontaine  on  translations.  —  Les  fcpistres 
d'Ovide.  —  Fontaine's  views  on  the  methods  to  be  employed  in  translating.  —  XXI 
fipltres  d'Ovide.  —  Le  Remede  d' amours.  —  Les  Nowoelles  et  antiques  meroeilles.  — 
Les  Diets  des  sept  Sages.  —  Mimes  de  Publian.  —  Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone.  — 
Symposius.  —  Value  of  Fontaine's  translations. 

JOACHIM  DU  BELLAY,  as  I  have  said  already,  was  not  the  first 
Frenchman  to  feel  that  the  French  language  and  literature  were 
relatively  weak,  and  he  was  not  the  first  to  attempt  to  "  illus- 
trate "  them.  In  the  second  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  grammarians  and  the  dabblers  in  grammar  Geoffrey  Tory, 
Jacques  Dubois,  fitienne  Dolet,  Jean  Bouchet,  Louis  Meigret, 
and  Jacques  de  Beaune  had  striven  to  make  French  more 
systematic,  more  reasonable,  and  better  suited  to  lofty  purposes 
than  it  had  been  in  the  past.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  in 
August,  1539,  Francis  I  issued  the  celebrated  edict  of  Villers- 
Cotterets,  which  ordered  that  thenceforth  all  legal  documents 
should  be  couched  in  the  vernacular. 

The  laudable  efforts  of  the  king  and  the  grammarians  were  ably 
seconded  by  those  of  the  translators,1  who  thought  that  the 
French  language  and  literature  might  be  improved  by  an  infusion 
of  the  masterpieces  of  antiquity,  of  Italy,  and  of  Spain.2 

1  Among  the  most  prominent  translators  of  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 
were:  Claude  de  Seyssel,  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais,  Antoine  Macault,  Jean  Colin, 
Jacques  de  Vintimille,  Jehan  Sanxon,  Geoffrey  Tory,  Cle'ment  Marot,  Mellin  de 
Saint-Gelais,  fitienne  Dolet,  Pierre  Saliat,  Antoine  IKroet,  Louis  Meigret,  Louis 
des  Masures,  Richard  le  Blanc,  Jacques  Gohorry,  Pierre  Duval,  Lazare  de  Ball, 
Bonaventure  des  PSriers,  Francois  Habert,  Charles  Estienne,  Antoine  Alaigre,  Jean 
Martin,  Hugues  Salel,  Herberay  des  Essarts,  Jacques  Peletier,  Jacques  Amyot,  and 
Thomas  Sibilet. 

2  Cf.  La  Defence,  i,  iv:  "  .  .  .  on  peut  voir  en  si  grand  nombre  de  livres  grecz  et 
latins,  voyre  bien  italiens,  espaignolz  et  autres,  traduictz  en  francoys  par  maintes 
excellentes  plumes  de  nostre  tens."  —  Works  by  the  following  Italian  and  Spanish 

195 


1 96  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

In  the  Defence,  Du  Bellay  expressed  the  opinion  that  transla- 
tions, though  useful  to  those  persons  who  had  no  knowledge  of 
foreign  languages,  were  not  sufficient  to  give  to  the  French  lan- 
guage the  desired  perfection.  This  opinion  he  reenforced  with  the 
following  reason  why  mere  translations  could  never  result  in  the 
benefits  that  would  come  from  the  free  imitation  of  classical 
masterpieces: 

.  .  .  pour  ce  qu'il  est  impossible  de  le  [idioms,  figures,  etc.]  rendre  avec- 
ques  la  mesme  grace  dont  1'autheur  en  a  use:  d'autant  que  chacune  langue  a 
je  ne  scay  quoy  propre  seulement  a  elle,  dont  si  vous  efforcez  exprimer  le  naif 
en  une  autre  langue,  observant  la  loi  de  traduyre,  qui  est  n'espacier  point 
hors  des  limites  de  1'aucteur,  vostre  diction  sera  contrainte,  froide,  et  de 
mauvaise  grace  .  .  -1  Celuy  donques  qui  voudra  faire  ceuvre  digne  de  prix 
en  son  vulgaire,  laisse  ce  labeur  de  traduyre,  principalement  les  poetes,  a  ceux 
qui  de  chose  laborieuse  et  peu  profitable,  j'ose  dire  encor'  inutile,  voyre 
pernicieuse  a  1'acroissement  de  leur  langue,  emportent  a  bon  droict  plus  de 
molestie  que  de  gloyre.2 

Against  Du  Bellay's  condemnation  of  translations,  especially  of 
the  poets,  it  is  interesting  to  set  the  opinion  of  Thomas  Sibilet, 
the  theorist  of  the  school  of  Marot: 

La  version  ou  traduction  est  aujourd'huy  le  poeme  plus  frequent  et  mieus 
receu  des  estime's  poetes  et  des  doctes  lecteurs,  a  cause  que  chacun  d'eus 
estime  grand  ceuvre  et  de  grand  pris,  rendre  la  pure  et  argentine  invention 
des  poetes  doree  et  enrichie  de  notre  langue.  Et  vrayement  celuy  et  son 
ceuvre  meritent  grande  louenge,  qui  a  peu  proprement  et  naivement  ex- 
primer  en  son  langage  ce  qu'un  autre  avoit  mieus  escrit  au  sien,  apres  1'avoir 
bien  conceu  en  son  esperit.  Et  luy  est  deue  la  mesme  gloire  qu'emporte 
celuy  qui  par  son  labeur  et  longue  peine  tire  des  entrailles  de  la  terre  le 
thresor  cache,  pour  le  faire  commun  a  1'usage  de  tous  les  homines.1 

authors  were  translated  into  French  during  the  period  in  question:  Boccaccio, 
Petrarch,  Pulci,  Boiardo,  Alberti,  Ariosto,  Bembo,  Berni,  Folengo,  Francesco 
Colonna,  Machiavelli,  Caviceo,  Castiglione;  Antonio  de  Guevara,  Pedro  Mexia 
Diego  de  San  Pedro,  Juan  de  Flores;  also  the  Celestina  and  Amadis  de  Gaula. 

1  La  Defence,  i,  v. 

2  Ibid.,  i,  vi.    Du  Bellay  makes  exceptions  (i,  vi):  "  Ce  que  je  dy  ne  s'adroisse 
pas  &  ceux  qui,  par  le  commandement  des  princes  et  grands  seigneurs,  traduysent  les 
plus  fameux  poetes  grecz  et  lathis."    Compare  also  I,  x:   "  Quand  aux  autres  parties 
de  literature,  et  ce  rond  de  sciences  que  les  Grecz  ont  nomm6  encycloptdie,  j'en  ay 
touch6  au  commencement  une  partie  de  ce  que  m'en  semble:  c'est  que  1'industrie 
des  fideles  traducteurs  est  en  cet  endroict  fort  utile  et  n£cessaire." 

*  Art  poetique  fran^oys  (1548),  Gaiffe  edition,  Paris,  1910,  p.  187. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  197 

Charles  Fontaine  shared  Sibilet's  opinion.  In  a  preface  to  his 
translation  of  the  "  first  book  "  of  Ovid's  Remedia  Amoris,1  he  has 
the  following  fling  at  the  "  enemies  of  all  translation,"  the  self- 
styled  imitators  of  the  classic  poets: 

Or  quant  a  ceux  qui  sont  si  grans  ennemis  de  toute  traduction,  a  leur  bon 
commandement :  mais  que  ce  pendant  ilz  ne  perseverent  point  a  desrober 
(qu'ilz  appellant  imiter)  plusieurs  vers  et  periodes  des  anciens  poetes,  les- 
quelz  vers,  sentences,  et  periodes  toutes  entieres  ilz  s'attribuent :  car  ilz  ne 
sauroient  si  bien  se  couvrir  de  ce  qu'aucuns  poetes  renommez  ont  fait  le 
semblable.2 

Fontaine's  translations,  which  form  about  one-half  of  his  pro- 
ductions, show  that  he  was  as  capable  a  translator  as  the  gen- 
erality of  contemporary  translators.  It  is  not  for  their  literary 
worth,  however,  that  we  shall  turn  our  attention  to  his  transla- 
tions, but  for  the  ideas  concerning  the  value  of  translations, 
the  methods  a  translator  should  employ,  and  other  matters  of 
interest  that  he  introduced  into  his  prefaces.3 

Fontaine,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Ovid, 
whose  elegies  he  imitated.  He  gave  further  evidence  of  his  affec- 
tion for  Ovid  by  translating  into  French  parts  of  the  Heroides  and 
of  the  Remedia  Amoris. 

His  translation  of  ten  of  the  Heroides  was  first  published  hi 
I552  by  Jean  Temporal  and  Eustache  Barricat,  of  Lyons.4  In  a 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  349. 

2  The  proneness  of  the  P16iade  to  appropriate  to  themselves  "  verses  and  periods 
from  the  ancient  poets  "  under  the  cloak  of  imitation  deserved  censure.    With 
Fontaine's  remarks  compare  Sibilet,  preface  to  Iphigene  (November,  1549):  .  .  . 
"  je  ne  suy  toutefois  tant  a  reprendre  que  celuy  qui  se  vante  d'avoir  trouv6  ce  qu'il 
ha  mot  4  mot  traduit  des  autres." 

3  Three  of  Fontaine's  translations  have  been  treated  in  preceding  chapters: 
Saint  Augustine's  Premier  livre  de  la  predestination  des  sainctz  (p.  45,  above), 
Artemidorus  (pp.  125  ff.,  above),  and  the  Promptuaire  des  medalles  (pp.  139  ff., 
above).    Mention  has  also  been  made  of  three  lost  translations  to  which  Fontaine 
refers:  Translat  de  Duel  and  Translat  de  la  Chiromance  (p.  126,  note  3,  above),  and 
an  unidentified  translation  presented  to  Francis  I  (p.  44,  above). 

4  Les  Epistres  d'Ovide  nouvettement  mises  en  versfran$oys  par  M.  Charles  Fontaine 
Parisien:  awe  les  prefaces  et  annotations:  le  tout  non  par  cy  devant  imprime.  Plus  y  a 
la  response  a  icelles  epistres.   In  the  dedicatory  epistle  to  Antoine  de  Crussol  occurs 


198  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Petit  avertissement  aux  lecteurs,  he  endeavors  to  justify  himself  for 
translating  a  part  of  the  Heroides  after  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais 
had  already  translated  them  (1500).  Did  not  Louis  des  Masures 
translate  the  Aeneid  after  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais,  and  did  not 
M.  de  Saint- Ambroise  (Jacques  Colin)  and  the  Seigneur  de  Saint- 
Romat  translate  some  of  the  Heroides  after  Octovien  ?  This 
proves  that  there  is  always  a  need  for  new  efforts;  the  more 
translations,  the  greater  the  profit  for  the  reader,  who  can  com- 
pare the  different  versions. 

Then  follow  a  few  lines  which  are  of  great  interest.  It  has  been 
seen  that  Du  Bellay  expressed  scorn  for  his  predecessors  and  even 
for  many  of  his  contemporaries.  Let  us  now  see  what  Fontaine 
thinks  of  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais,  who  died  just  a  half -century 
before  the  ensuing  lines  were  penned.  Could  anything  be  more 
indicative  of  the  views  of  the  French  language  held  by  writers 
in  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Fontaine  speaks  in  a  patronizing 
manner  of  Saint-Gelais,  Du  Bellay  shows  the  utmost  contempt 
for  Fontaine  and  his  fellows,  and  only  a  short  time  after,  the 
author  of  the  Vies  des  poetes  franqois  refers  to  the  language  of  the 
entire  sixteenth  century  as  if  it  were  almost  an  incomprehensible 
jargon  of  forgotten  ages.1  Fontaine's  reference  to  Saint-Gelais 
follows: 

En  quoy  disant  je  n'enten  le  [Saint-Gelais]  blasmer,  ains  plus  tost  le  veuil 
je  excuser,  et  prendre  en  bonne  part  ce  qu'il  a  fait  lors  que  nostre  langue 
francoise  n'estoit  pas  encor  bien  avant  sortie  de  son  enf ance,  ni  n'estoient  les 
artz  et  sciences  tant  esclarcis,  ny  les  espritz  si  promptz,  vifz,  et  agus  comme 
de  present. 

In  a  second  notice  to  the  reader,  Fontaine  sets  forth  his  ideas  on 
translating,  the  most  important  of  which  is  that  the  translator 

the  following  passage:  "  Monseigneur,  ce  qui  m'induit  vous  escrire  a  present  est  que 
je  me  suis  udonne,  depuis  quelques  ann^es,  £l  mettre  en  vers  francois  les  premieres 
dpistres  du  gentil  poete  Ovide,  tellement  que  mon  labeur  est  parvenu  jusques  &  la 
traduction  de  dix,  dont  je  vous  fay  un  present:  et  ay  eleu  ce  subject,  entre  cent 
autres,  pource  que  des  mon  jeune  aage  j'ay  tous jours  eu  en  admiration  les  ceuvres 
d'Ovide,  singulier  poete  en  invention,  grace,  et  facilite"." 
1  Colletet,  passim:  cf.  p.  45,  above. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  199 

should  try  to  reproduce  the  sense  of  the  work  translated  rather 
than  distort  the  sense  by  seeking  to  adhere  too  closely  to  the 
original  words.1  He  exhibits  an  especial  dislike  for  translators 
who  skip  ten  or  twelve  Latin  verses  because  they  are  difficult, 
who  expand  a  single  Latin  verse  into  eight  or  ten  French  verses, 
or  who  render  the  opposite  of  the  original  meaning  by  introducing 
ideas  of  their  own.2  In  reply  to  ignorant  people  who  complain 
that  translations  are  not  made  word  for  word,  he  points  out  that 
each  language  has  its  own  peculiar  idioms,  "  de  sorte  que  bien 
souvent  ce  qu'en  une  langue  se  dira  bien  elegamment  en  troys 
mots  ne  se  pourra  pas  bien  proprement  et  facilement  dire  en  six 
en  une  autre  langue."  3 

Special  care  should  be  given  to  Latin  proper  names,  continues 
Fontaine.  As  far  as  feasible,  they  should  be  left  in  their  original 
form,  and  should  not  be  given  French  endings,4  "pour  la  reverence 
de  1'antiquite,"  and  also  because  the  unstable  French  orthography 
has  not  yet  determined  the  proper  forms  of  these  names.  How- 
ever, if  precedents  can  be  found,  the  French  forms  may  be  used 
when  they  add  to  the  smoothness  of  the  verse,  but  even  then  the 
Latin  forms  should  be  placed  in  the  margin  of  the  page.5 

1  "  En  traduisant  ces  fipistres  d'Ovide  pr6c6dentes  je  ne  me  suis  tant  voulu 
renger  aus  termes  qu'au  sens." 

2  "  Le  premier  vice  est  comme  essoiner,  detrancher,  et  mutiler  1'auteur:    le 
second,  trop  le  confondre,  et  entreprendre  sur  lui:  et  le  tiers,  est  le  renverser,  cor- 
rompre  et  contreindre  a  nostre  sens:  qui  sont  troys  vices  tres  grans  et  insupporta- 
bles,  a  tout  bon  ceil,  en  un  traducteur." 

*  Cf.  Du  Bellay,  p.  196,  above.  This  applies  particularly  to  Latin  and  French, 
says  Fontaine:  "  .  .  .  un  vers  latin  a  tous jours  deux  ou  troys  syllabes,  voire  quel- 
quefoys  six  ou  sept,  plus  que  le  vers  francoys:  j'enten  des  vers  lathis  exametres  et 
pentametres,  qui  sont  les  plus  communs,  et  dont  se  font  plus  de  traductions.  Aussi 
Ton  voit  quelle  rudesse  et  mauvaise  grace  ont  les  traductions  ainsi  faictes  de  vers 
pour  vers." 

4  Ronsard  and  Du  Bellay  discussed  this  point.  Both  were  in  favor  of  giving 
French  endings,  whenever  possible,  to  Greek  and  Lathi  proper  names.  Cf.  La 
Defence,  n,  vi;  Abrige  de  I' art  poetique,  Blanchemain  ed.  of  Ronsard's  works,  vol. 
vii,  pp.  320  and  335. 

6  Fontaine  says  he  employs  some  modernized  forms  that  he  found  in  a  book, 
"  1'estat  du  grand  Turc,  et  des  tables  de  la  Grece,  et  de  ecus  qui  ont  revu  et  addi- 
tionne'  le  Ptolom6e." 


200  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

After  these  observations  on  the  methods  of  translating,  Fon- 
taine explains  the  merits  of  his  translation  of  the  Heroides;  it  will 
not  only  allow  the  common  herd  to  enjoy  the  beauties  of  Ovid 
without  a  knowledge  of  Latin,  but  it  will  also  serve  as  an  excel- 
lent moral  tonic: 

Les  moeurs  .  .  .  pource  qu'il  n'y  a  personne  tant  adonne'e  et  eschauff6e 
en  1'amour  voluptueuse,  qui  n'en  soit  bien  refroidie  et  destourn6e  apres 
qu'elle  aura  bien  leu  icy  dedans,  et  bien  consid6r6  les  peines  et  miseres  des 
amoureux,  les  poignantes  passions,  les  pertes  de  sens,  et  folles  perturbations, 
les  belles  paroles  et  faulses  promesses,  les  regretz  et  complaintes,  les  impa- 
tiences et  inconstances:  et,  pour  la  fin,  les  mauvaises  issues  avec  desespoir, 
mal  respondans  a  leur  commencement  tant  joyeux  et  tant  plein  de  grand 
espoir. 

There  is  nothing  obscene  in  the  Heroides,  says  Maitre  Charles. 
Examples  of  chastity  abound;  for  instance,  Penelope  and  Deia- 
nira.  Phaedra's  love  for  Hippolytus  was  scarcely  proper,  it  is 
true;  still,  the  reader  may  profit  by  the  epistle  dealing  with  her 
love;  let  him  close  his  eyes  to  the  passages  about  Phaedra,  and 
let  him  drink  in  with  his  whole  soul  the  verses  relating  to  the 
chaste  Hippolytus.1 

The  Epistres  d'Ovide  had  such  a  great  success  that  in  1556  Fon- 
taine published  a  second  edition.  To  the  first  ten  epistles  trans- 
lated by  himself,  he  added  the  remaining  eleven,  translated  by 
Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais  and  the  Seigneur  de  Saint-Romat.2 

1  After  remarking  that  his  translation  "  sera  prins  en  bonne  part  par  ceux  qui 
seront  raisonnables,  et  qui  auront  tant  soit  peu  de  sel  en  leur  teste,"  Fontaine  adds  a 
few  words  about  Michel  d'Amboise's  Response  aux  dix  epistres  precedentes,  which  he 
appended  to  his  translation.  In  the  Conlrepislres  d'Ovide,  Paris,  1541  and  1546, 
Michel  d'Amboise,  imitating  a  Latin  writer,  Aulus  Sabinus,  attempted  to  pen 
replies  to  the  Heroides.  "  Ce  sont  les  h6ros  qui  y  parlent,"  says  Goujet,  "  et  dans 
plusieurs  des  discours  que  1'auteur  leur  prete,  on  voit  qu'il  n'a  pas  eu  1'intention  de 
faire  sa  cour  aux  dames."  Concerning  Michel  d'Amboise,  see  Goujet,  Bibl.  fran$., 
vol.  x,  pp.  327-358. 

1  Les  XXI  &pttres  d'Ovide.  Les  dix  premieres  sont  traduiies  par  Charles  Fontaine 
Parisien:  le  reste  est  par  lui  rew  et  augments  de  prefaces.  Les  amours  de  Mars  et 
Venus,  et  de  Pluton  vers  Proserpine:  imitation  d'Homere  et  d'Ovide,  Lyons,  Jean  de 
Tournes  and  Guillaume  Gazeau.  In  the  dedication  to  Madame  de  Crussol,  the 
mother  of  Antoine  de  Crussol,  Fontaine,  after  speaking  of  the  success  of  his  fipistres 
d'Ovide,  says  that  he  has  decided  to  publish  a  new  edition:  "  Encores  (£  fin  que 


THE  TRANSLATOR  201 

Fontaine's  translation  of  the  "  first  book  "  of  Ovid's  Remedia 
Amoris  appeared  in  the  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine  (1555).  In  a  fore- 
word, Le  Translateur  aux  lecteurs,  Maitre  Charles  refers  to  his 
translation  of  the  first  ten  Heroides,  "  que  vous  avez  veue  ces 
jours  passez,"  and  then  takes  up  the  question  of  translating  hi 
general.  At  the  risk  of  repeating  what  has  been  given  above,  I 
shall  reproduce  his  ideas  on  the  duties  of  translators,  as  set  forth 
succinctly  in  the  Remede  d*  amours: 

Je  trouve  done  qu'il  y  a  trois  choses  que  doit  observer  un  qui  veult  bien 
traduire:  la  premiere,  c'est  qu'il  retienne  et  rende  les  termes  et  dictions  de 
1'auteur,  autant  pres  qu'il  est  possible:  ce  que  1'on  peult  appeller  la  robbe. 

La  seconde,  qu'il  rende  aussi  le  sens  par  tout  entier  (car  il  ne  fault  tant 
estre  curieux  des  termes  que  de  laisser  le  sens,  ou  le  rendre  obscur) :  ce  que 
Ton  peult  appeller  le  corps. 

La  tierce,  c'est  qu'il  rende  et  exprime  aussi  naivement  la  naturelle  grace, 
vertu,  6nergie,  la  doulceur,  e!6gance,  dignite,  force,  et  vivacite  de  son  auteur 
qu'il  veult  traduire,  et  des  personnes  introduictes  parlans  ou  faisans  aucunes 

1'euvre  fut  plus  parfait  et  acompli)  delib6ray  y  ajouter  les  onze  6pitres  qui  restoient: 
et  ce,  non  de  ma  traduccion  nouvelle,  ains  de  1'antique  translat  de  feu  Monsieur  de 
Saingelais,  jadis  fivesque  d'Angoulesme,  pour  laisser  aussi  1'honneur  deu  a  celle 
bonne  antique  simplicit6  ou  simple  antiquit6 :  que  1'on  reconnoltra  a  la  trace  estre 
de  ce  bon  vieus  terns:  et  dequoy  meintes  gens  le  resentans  se  pourront  d61ecter. 
Toutefois  y  ay  passg  la  main  par  dessus,  ne  fut  que  pour  racoutrer  1'ortografe,  les 
points,  quelques  mots  et  lignes  entieres  Iaiss6es  en  sens  imparfait,  .  .  .  changeant 
encor  quelquefois  et  radoubant  les  coupes  feminines,  oft  j'ay  senti  que  facilement  se 
pouvoit  faire.  .  .  . 

Et  ne  doy  oublier  que  j'ay  fourni  celles  [epistles]  d'firo  et  Leander  [the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth]  du  translat,  non  du  Signeur  Octovian,  ains  du  Signeur  de  Saint- 
Romat  (comme  j'entens),  par  ce  qu'elles  sont  trop  mieus  resentans  la  perfeccion  de 
notre  terns  en  honneur  lit£raire. 

Au  reste  nous  avons  encores  ajoutfi  a  la  fin  d'icelles  epitres  les  amours  de  Mars  et 
V6nus,  imitacion  d'Homere:  et  le  ravissement  de  Proserpine,  imitacion  aussi  de 
notre  Ovide:  deus  petis  traitez  non  par  ci  devant  imprimez." 

In  the  XXI  6pitres  d'Ovide,  Fontaine  also  put  one  of  C16ment  Marot's  transla- 
tions: Musaeus,  ancien  poete  grec:  Des  Amours  de  Leander  et  Hero,  traduit  en  rime 
jranqoise  par  Clement  Marot  de  Cahors  en  Querci,  valet  de  chambre  du  Roy. 

New  editions  of  the  XXI  £,pitres  d'Ovide  were  published  in  1571  by  Hierosme  de 
Marnef,  of  Paris,  in  1573  by  Jean  de  Tournes,  of  Lyons,  and  in  1580  by  Guillaume 
Cavellat,  of  Paris.  The  1573  edition  contains  also  Le  Combat  d'Hercule  et  d'Ache- 
lois,  pris  d'Ovide,  par  I 'excellent  poete  franQois  Joachim  du  Bellay.  Since  Fontaine 
was  probably  dead  in  1573,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  insertion  of  Du  Bellay's 
poem  in  the  volume  was  merely  a  trick  of  the  publisher. 


202  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

choses:  ce  que  1'on  peult  appeller  Fame  de  1'oraison:  mais  bien  peu  de  ceux 
qui  traduisent  adviennent  eureusement  a  ces  trois  pointz,  pour  la  grant 
difficult^.  Parquoy  la  plus  grand  part  des  plus  sages  et  experts  translateurs 
sont  plus  soigneux  a  rendre  le  sens  et  la  grace  que  les  mots:  de  Padvis  et  du 
nombre  desquelz  j'ay  este",  je  suis,  et  vueil  estre.1 

In  1554  Fontaine  published  a  small  volume  composed  mainly 
of  translations,  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles.  Plus,  un 
traicte  des  douze  Cesars,  premiers  empereurs  de  Romme,  nouvelle- 
ment  traduit  d'ltalien  en  Franqois.  En  fin  y  a  une  Ode  pour  Dieu 
gard  a  la  mile  de  Paris,  faite  en  Juin  1554? 

1  Compare  the  suggestions  to  translators  by  fitienne  Dolet  in  La  Manicre  de  bien 
traduire  d'une  langue  en  autre,  Lyons,  1540:  (i)  The  translator  should  understand 
perfectly  the  sense  and  the  matter  of  the  author  he  is  translating,  (2)  should  have  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  both  languages,  (3)  should  not  make  a  literal  translation, 
(4)  in  translating  from  Latin  into  a  modern  language,  should  use  common  words, 
avoid  neologisms  and  words  too  closely  resembling  Latin,  (5)  should  seek  to  make 
the  translation  harmonious  and  agreeable  to  the  ear  as  well  as  to  the  soul. 

Goujet  (vol.  vi,  p.  n)  scoffed  at  the  following  statement  by  Fontaine  relating  to 
the  Remede  d' amours:  "  J'ay  traduit  cecy  pour  bien  et  pour  la  vertu:  comme  aussi 
pour  mesme  raison,  a  bonne  intention  et  pour  induire  a  pudiques  mceurs,  j'ay,  long 
temps  a,  compost  le  petit  trait6  de  la  Contr'amie  de  Court."  Notwithstanding 
Goujet's  protest  that  the  Remedia  Amoris  could  scarcely  serve  as  a  guide  to  virtue, 
Fontaine's  statement  is  true.  Goujet  had  in  mind  the  entire  Remedia  Amoris, 
Fontaine  only  the  portion  translated  by  him,  that  is,  the  first  396  lines.  It  is  only 
after  the  396th  line  that  Ovid  becomes  obscene. 

In  a  short  summary  of  the  Remede  d'amours,  Fontaine  pays  the  following  com- 
pliment to  the  Deiphira  of  Leon  Battista  Alberti:  "...  ceux  qui  voudront,  en 
pourront  voir  un  autre  petit  [livre]  en  prose,  que  je  trouve  bien  fait  et  bien  d£duit, 
c'est  la  D6iphire  de  L6on  Baptiste  Albert,  qui  enseigne  d'eViter  1'amour:  il  a  est6 
compost  en  italien  et  traduit  en  francois,  et  imprim6  par  plusieurs  fois." 

According  to  Blanchemain,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais  wrote  the  following  lines  on 
Fontaine's  Remede  d'amours: 

Amour  voyant  la  superscription 

De  ton  livret,  qui  le  blasme  et  mlprise, 

En  voulut  voir  1'ordre  et  la  diction, 

Et  y  trouva  tant  d'art  et  de  maistrise 

Que  pour  le  stile  il  loua  1'entreprise 

Et  centre  toy  n'en  fut  pis  anime. 

II  faut  done  bien,  ami,  que  1'on  te  prise, 

S'Amour  hayant  d'Amour  tu  es  aime. 

(Blanchemain  edition  of  Saint-Gelais's  works,  vol.  ii,  p.  59.) 

Other  critics  think  that  Saint-Gelais's  huitain  refers  to  Fontaine's  Conlr'amye  de 
Court. 

1  Paris,  Guillaume  le  Noir. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  203 

The  "  new  and  antique  marvels  "  are  epitomes:  Sommaire  du 
lime  des  nouvelles  Isles,  a  vague  account  of  Columbus's  voyages  to 
the  West,  made  from  a  work  which  I  am  unable  to  identify,1  and 
Les  Fleurs  du  lime  de  Asse:  qui  est  un  petit  recueil  et  brief  som- 
maire  de  plusieurs  belles  antiquitez:  contenant  une  partie  de  V excel- 
lence et  magnificence  des  richesses,  triomphes  et  largesses  des  anciens, 
et  principalement  des  Rommains,  scarcely  more  than  a  table  of 
contents  of  Guillaume  Bude's  De  Asse  (1515),  a  treatise  on  the 
coins  and  measures  of  antiquity,  which,  according  to  M.  Gustave 
Lanson,  showed  the  humanists  the  way  to  exact  erudition.2  The 
Traicte  des  douze  Cesars  is  a  synopsis  of  Suetonius's  Vitae  Caesa- 
rum.  The  Roman  emperors  from  Julius  Caesar  to  Domitian  are 
honored  with  a  short  biography  and  an  account  of  the  chief 
events  of  their  careers. 

In  addition  to  these  epitomes,  the  volume  contains  several 
odes  by  Fontaine,  and  especially  the  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  mile 
de  Paris,  which  furnishes  information  about  some  of  the  foremost 
men  of  the  time  and  some  of  the  principal  monuments  and  insti- 
tutions of  Paris.3 

Notwithstanding  the  documentary  value  of  the  Ode  pour  Dieu 
gard  a  la  mile  de  Paris  and  Fontaine's  laudable  effort  to  put  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  summaries  of  such  important  works  as  the 
De  Asse  and  the  Vitae  Caesarum,  the  most  interesting  part  of  the 
Nouvelles  et  antiques  merueilles  is  the  dedicatory  letter  to  "  M. 
d'lvor,  secretaire  du  Roy."  This  letter  contains  many  curious 
ideas  relating  to  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  which  occurred 
only  some  sixty  years  before  the  publication  of  Fontaine's  Som- 
maire du  lime  des  nouvelles  Isles.  The  portion  of  the  epistle 
dealing  with  the  New  World  follows: 

1  I  have  examined  a  large  number  of  possible  sources,  but  the  fact  that  Fon- 
taine's work  is  a  summary  makes  identification  of  its  source  very  difficult,  if  not 
impossible. 

z.Hist.  de  la  litt.  fran^aise,  p.  230.  In  1522  Bud£  made  at  the  king's  request  an 
abridgment  in  French  of  the  De  Asse.  M.  Louis  Delaruelle,  in  his  Guillaume  Bude, 
Paris,  1907,  does  not  mention  Fontaine's  epitome  of  Bud6's  work. 

8  The  Ode  is  composed  of  102  quatrains.  For  a  complete  list  of  the  persons 
addressed,  see  Bibliography,  A,  no.  10. 


204  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Ces  deux  sommaires,  ou  double  recueil,  j'ay  nomm6  les  nouvelles  et 
antiques  merveilles,  et  non  sans  cause:  car  le  premier  recueil  contient  som- 
mairement  et  par  recapitulation  la  description  et  discours  des  terres  nouvelle- 
ment  trouv6es  qu'on  appelle  terres  neufves:  je  dy  nouvellement  trouv6es 
pource  qu'elles  ont  est6  trouvees  seulement  de  nostre  temps,  et  pour  la  plus 
grant  partie  depuis  soyxante  et  dix  ans.  Et  pource  je  les  appelle  les  nou- 
velles merveilles :  et  ce  pour  deux  raisons.  La  premiere  par  ce  que  Ptolomee, 
qui  a  descript  le  plus  amplement  de  toutes  les  regions  et  climatz  de  la  terre, 
laquelle  il  a  divisee  en  Europe,  Asie  et  Af rique,  jamais  n'a  fait  mention  aucune 
de  ces  isles  et  gens  des  terres  neufves,  ny  Strabo,  ny  tous  les  autres  cosmo- 
graphes  ou  geographes  anciens.  Dont  appert  derement  qu'elles  n'estoient 
encor  trouv£es,  sceues,  ny  cogneues  au  monde.  Et  pource  les  geographes 
modernes  en  ont  fait  une  quarte  partie  de  la  terre,  qu'ilz  ont  nominee  isle, 
attendu  qu'elle  est  toute  environnSe  de  la  men  et  les  autres  trois  parties 
ont  est6  nomm£es  terre  ferme. 

La  seconde  raison  est  pourtant  que  la  conversation  et  maniere  de  faire  de 
ces  gens  habitans  lesdictes  isles  et  terres  neufves  sont  fort  merveilleuses  et 
estranges. 

Or,  par  ce  premier  discours  et  sommaire  vous  verrez  comment  ces  isles 
f urent  premier  trouvees  par  un  de  nostre  nation  nomme  Betencourt :  *  et 
depuis  assaillies  et  hant6es  par  un  G6nevoys  nomme  Christofle  Coulom,  qui 
obtint  navires  et  gens  du  Roy  d'Espaigne  Fernand:  toutesfoys  j'ay  trouv£ 
aux  livres  latins  traictans  de  geographic  que  ces  isles  furent  premier  trouvees 
par  Ameiic  Vespuce:  et  pourtant  les  modernes  geographes  appellent  ceste 
partie  de  la  terre  Amerique  ou  Amerige.  Mais  nonobstant  je  croy  et  tiens 
que  B6tencourt  y  fut  le  premier,  non  pour  favoriser  a  ma  nation  (car  Beten- 
court estoit  Francoys),  ains  par  ce  que  la  date  que  je  trouve  aux  livres  latins 
quand  AmSric  trouva  lesdictes  terres  est  depuis  et  long  temps  apres  la  date 
que  je  trouve  que  Betencourt  y  fut.  Ceste  partie  de  terre  pour  sa  grandeur 
et  spaciosite  les  geographes  modernes  nomment  nouveau  monde:  et  disent 
que  les  habitans  vont  tous  nudz,  mangent  les  gens  estrangers,  et  Tun  1'autre 
quelquefoys:  sont  fort  seurs  a  tirer  de  1'arc:  n'ob6issent  a  personne,  et  sont 
sans  Roy  et  seigneurs,  pour  la  plus  grande  partie:  sont  bons  et  expertz 
nageurs,  tant  hommes  que  femmes:  n'ont  fer,  ny  m6taux,  mais  arment  et 
affutent  leurs  sagettes,  fleches,  et  dardz  de  dents  de  bestes  et  poissons:  sont 
fort  legers  et  courent  bien.  Leurs  richesses  sont  les  plumes  d'oyseaux  de 
diverses  couleurs,  et  grande  abondance  de  pierreries,  lesquelles  pour  bravetS 
ilz  pendent  et  attachent  a  leurs  levres  et  oreilles.  Ilz  ont  perles  et  or:  sont 
Iib6raux  a  donner,  curieux  aussi  et  convoiteux  de  prendre  et  recevoir.  Ilz  se 
tirent  le  sang  par  les  reins  et  par  les  jambes.  Les  aucuns  ensevellissent  leurs 
mortz  avec  eau  et  vivres.  Les  autres  mettent  les  plus  malades,  et  pres  de  la 
mort,  avec  vivres  sur  des  cordages  de  coton,  attachez  et  penduz  lesditz  cor- 
dages en  facon  de  retz  a  deux  arbres  en  une  grande  forest:  et  passent  la  tout 

1  Concerning  Jean  de  B6thencourt  (d.  1422),  the  conqueror  of  the  Canary 
Islands,  see  article  and  references  in  the  Grande  encyclopedia. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  205 

le  jour  a  danser  et  sauter  autour  de  celuy  qui  se  meurt.  Ilz  adorent  le  del, 
le  soleil,  et  la  lune,  et  les  estoilles.  Leurs  domiciles  et  maisons  sont  faictes  en 
facon  de  cloches  couvertes  par  dessus  de  fueille  d'arbre  qu'on  appelle  palme. 
Ilz  n'ont  point  de  grains  ou  fruitz  pour  semer,  mais  font  de  la  farine  de 
racines  d'arbres,  et  en  cuisent  et  mangent  comme  pain.  Ceux  qui  sont  pro- 
chains  de  1'isle  dicte  de  1'Espaignole  vivent  de  grans  serpens  qu'ilz  mangent 
au  lieu  de  pain  et  aussi  de  racines.  L'on  trouve  en  ces  pays  la  une  beste 
ayant  naturellement  une  vessie  dessoubz  son  estomac,  dedans  laquelle  elle 
porte  ses  petis,  et  ne  les  met  hors  sinon  pour  les  alaicter.1 

The  remaining  three  translations  by  Fontaine  are  similar  in 
nature;  in  each  case  he  tried  to  satisfy  the  fondness  of  his  con- 
temporaries for  proverbs  and  "  sentences." 

The  first  of  these  translations,  published  in  1557  by  Jean 
Citoys,  of  Lyons,  is  entitled  Les  Diets  des  sept  Sages,  ensemble 
plusieurs  autres  sentences  latines  extraites  de  divers,  bons,  et  anciens 
auteurs,  avec  leur  exposition  franqoise.  In  addition  to  "  golden 
words  or  precepts  "  by  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece,  the  Diets 
des  sept  Sages  contains  150  "  sentences "  culled  from  other 
ancient  writers  —  for  instance,  from  Theophrastus,  Aristotle, 
Diogenes,  Crates,  Menander,  Pericles,  Theognis,  Euripides,  Pro- 
pertius,  Ovid,  Juvenal,  Horace,  and  Virgil.  Fontaine  did  not 
translate  the  sayings  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  and  the  other  Greek 
authors  from  the  Greek,  but  made  use  of  Latin  translations. 
His  method  is  simple:  the  precept  is  given  in  Latin,  followed 

1  Concerning  his  epitome  of  Bud6's  De  Asse,  Fontaine  says:  "  La  verrez  cer- 
taines  belles  antiques  singularitez  recueillies  de  divers  auteurs  et  historiographes: 
lesquelles  choses  m'ont  semb!6  bien  notables  et  dignes  d'estre  bien  congneues  et 
communiquees:  et  qui  d'autant  plus  facilement  pourront  plaire  aux  lecteurs,  et  par 
eux  estre  leues  et  retenues,  comme  plus  brievement  je  les  ay  mises  en  avant,  a 
1'honneur  et  renom  de  nostre  nation:  car  1'autheur  premier  estoit  feu  monsieur 
Bud6,  jadis  maistre  des  requestes  chez  le  Roy,  homme  par  tout  renommfi  pour  son 
grand  scavoir,  et  estoit  Francoys  de  nation,  comme  aussi  celuy  qui  trouva  premier 
les  terres  neufves  estoit  Francoys,  ainsi  que  j'ay  touchS  cy  dessus.  Et  par  ainsi  le 
tout  (c'est  a  dire  les  deux  petis  traictez)  redonde  a  1'honneur  de  la  France  ..." 

In  1559  Fontaine  published  the  following  work,  probably  a  part  of  the  N cuvettes 
et  antiques  merveilles:  La  Description  des  terres  trouv&s  de  nostre  temps,  avec  le  som- 
maire  de  plusieurs  belles  antiquitez,  contenant  une  partie  de  V excellence  et  magnificence 
des  richesses,  triumphes  et  largesses  des  anciens,  Lyons,  Benoit  Rigaud.  See  Bibliog- 
raphy, A,  no.  20. 


206  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

by  the  French  translation,  with  parallel  citations  from  various 
writers  and  comments  by  Fontaine. 

The  second  volume  of  precepts,  published  also  in  1557  by  Jean 
Citoys,  bears  the  following  title:  Mimes  de  Publian,  ce  sont  cer- 
tains diets  graves  et  sentencieux,  mis  de  latin  enfranqois  et  accordes 
avec  plusieurs  bons  auteurs:  ensemble  douze  paraboles  et  six  enigmes. 
The  author  whom  Fontaine  calls  Publian  is  Publilius  Syrus,  the 
Latin  author  of  mimes  of  the  first  century  before  Christ,  whose 
sententious  sayings  were  very  popular  in  the  Middle  Ages.1 

Fontaine's  tendency  to  moralize  reaches  its  height  in  his  last 
translation,  Les  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone  sur  les  dits  des  sept 
Sages.  Odes  et  autres  compositions,  pour  inciter  a  la  vertu,  pub- 
lished in  1558  by  Jean  Brotot,  of  Lyons.  This  work  is  composed 
of  translations  of  precepts  from  Ausonius's  Ludus  Septem  Sapien- 
ium,  a  sort  of  play  in  which  the  Seven  Wise  Men  of  Greece  regale 
their  listeners  with  moral  sayings,  and  of  original  poems  in 
French:  the  ten  commandments,  morning  and  evening  prayers,2 
and  a  number  of  odes.  The  following  lines  to  the  Duke  of  Anjou 
sound  the  keynote  of  the  entire  volume: 

Durant  cette  eureuse  jeunesse 
Pourra  bien  prendre  esbatement 
Votre  vertueuse  noblesse 
Avec  ma  Muse  honnestement : 
Car  elle  chante  chastement 
Au  loz  de  vertu  immortelle: 
Et  si  mesprise  constamment 
Maintz  abus  de  vie  mortelle. 

The  odes,  which  form  the  most  important  part  of  the  work, 
testify  to  the  great  change  that  has  come  over  the  once  ambitious 

1  Fontaine  would  have  been  more  correct  had  he  entitled  his  translation  Sentences 
de  Publian,  since  the  precepts  given  are  merely  detached  fragments  of  Publilius 
Syrus's  lost  mimes  (some  of  which  are  now  attributed  to  Seneca  and  Laberius).  — 
The  Mimes  de  Publian  is  dedicated  to  the  Dauphin.  In  the  preliminary  epistle 
Fontaine  speaks  of  his  admiration  for  Publilius  Syrus,  and  takes  pride  in  being 
the  first  to  translate  his  precepts  into  French. 

1  Compare  Marot's  Oraisons  (Jannet  edition,  vol.  iv,  pp.  49  ff .) :  articles  of  faith, 
the  ten  commandments,  prayers  during  and  after  meals,  the  Ave  Maria,  etc. 


THE  TRANSLATOR  207 

poet;  the  world  now  seems  to  him  a  hollow  sham,  full  of  wicked- 
ness and  deception.1  The  burden  of  the  odes  is  identical:  life  is 
short;  avoid  avarice,  pride,  envy,  wrath;  shun 

Ces  voluptez,  ces  appetis, 
Qui  corrompent  grans  et  petis, 
Ces  faucetez  et  ces  faintises, 
Concupiscences,  convoitises. 
Souvenez  vous  plutdt: 
Mais  cil  qui  a  1'esprit  fonde 
Sur  fondement  ferme  et  sonde1 
Par  vertu  ferme  et  asseuree, 
Vit  mieux  et  plus  a  la  duree.2 

As  a  whole,  Fontaine's  translations  are  valuable  and  interest- 
ing, and  were  doubtless  more  so  at  the  time  they  were  published 
than  at  the  present  day.  In  selecting  works  to  translate,  Fontaine 
evidently  tried  to  furnish  a  variety  of  subjects  and  to  cater  to  the 
taste  of  the  general  public:  the  unpublished  Premier  lime  de  la 
predestination  des  sainctz  of  Saint  Augustine  is  a  theological 
treatise;  Artemidorus  deals  with  a  popular  superstition;  the 
£,pistres  d'Ovide  and  the  Remede  d" amours  treat  of  love;  the 
Promptuaire  des  medalles  is  an  encyclopaedic  work  dealing  with 
ancient  and  modern  times,  the  Bible,  and  mythology;  the  Liwe 
des  nouvelles  Isles  is  concerned  with  the  New  World,  the  Traicte 
des  douze  Cesar s  and  the  summary  of  Bude's  De  Asse  with  an- 
tiquity; the  volumes  of  "sentences"  —  the  Diets  des  sept  Sages, 
the  Mimes  de  Publian,  and  the  Sentences  du  poete  Ausone  —  con- 
tain "the  quintessence  of  ancient  wisdom";3  and  even  the 
worthless  enigmas  were  welcomed  by  the  readers  of  the  time. 

1  The  titles  of  a  few  of  the  odes  are:  Que  le  repos  et  contentement  d' esprit  est  le  seul 
grand  Men  que  Dieu  donne  en  ce  monde;  De  la  froide  charite,  et  de  la  bonne  amitie 
perdue;  Aux  amis  du  monde;  A  celuy  qui  s'esbahissoil  que  Vautheur  n' avail  acquis 
plus  de  biens  de  ce  monde. 

2  In  addition  to  the  translations  mentioned,  Fontaine  translated  into  French 
twenty-eight  enigmas  by  the  Latin  poet  Caelius  Firmianus  Symposius  (or  by 
Lactantius).    See  Les  Ruisseaux,  pp.  217  ff.    Concerning  the  popularity  of  the 
enigma,  Sibilet  says  (Art  poetique,  n,  xi) :  "  Aujourd'huy  ...  il  est  fort  receu  .  .  ." 

*  Concerning  the  value  of  such  collections  in  the  sixteenth  century,  see  Lanson, 
Hist,  de  la  litt.  franfaise,  p.  230,  in  connection  with  Erasmus's  Adages. 


208  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

With  regard  to  the  value  of  Fontaine's  translations,  and  of 
translations  in  general,  I  must  side  with  Sibilet  against  Du 
Bellay.  There  is  no  doubt,  as  M.  Chamard  remarks,  that  Joa- 
chim professed  to  scorn  translations  merely  because  they  were 
held  in  high  esteem  by  the  "  Marotteaux."  *  At  any  rate,  Du 
Bellay  and  other  members  of  the  Pleiade  showed  that  they  were 
in  reality  not  so  hostile  towards  the  "  version  "  as  the  Defence 
pretended:  Tyard,  Belleau,  and  Baif  translated  various  works; 
Ronsard  translated  the  Plutus  of  Aristophanes,  and  published 
many  an  "  imitation "  of  ancient  and  modern  writers;  Du 
Bellay  translated  the  fourth  and  the  sixth  books  of  the  Aeneid, 
several  passages  from  Ovid,  "  imitated  "  many  of  the  poems  of 
Navagero  and  other  Italians,  and  in  the  Defence,  in  which  he 
inveighed  against  translations,  introduced  page  after  page  of 
servile  translation  from  Sperone  Speroni's  Dialogo  delle  lingue.2 

1  "  D'ou  lui  vient  cet  acces  de  colere,  et  pourquoi  proscrit-il  la  traduction  avec 
tant  de  rigueur  ?  Est-ce  done  settlement  pour  garantir  I'originalit6  de  l'6crivain  et 
r6server  ses  droits  a  1'invention  ?  Je  le  voudrais;  mais  j'ai  grand'peur  que  ce  soit 
surtout  pour  faire  6chec  aux  Marotiques.  La  "  version  "  eiait  fort  en  honneur 
dans  1'ecole  de  Marot."  (Chamard,  Joachim  du  Bellay,  p.  122.) 

1  Cf.  P.  Villey,  Les  Sources  italiennes  de  la  "  Defence"  Paris,  1908. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE 

Les  Figures  du  Nouveau  Testament.  —  Fontaine's  view  on  orthography.  —  Les 
Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine.  —  Le  Passetemps  des  amis.  —  College  de  la  Trinite".  — 
Fontaine  temporary  principal  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite'.  —  Odes,  enigmes,  et 
epigrammes.  —  Salutation  au  Roy  Charles  IX,  sus  son  entree  en  sa  noble  et  antique 
mile  de  Lyon.  —  Death  of  Fontaine. 

FROM  1552  to  1559  inclusive  Fontaine  published  nearly  two- 
thirds  of  all  his  works  —  thirteen,  and  possibly  fourteen,1  volumes, 
or  an  average  of  about  two  volumes  a  year.  Of  this  number  we 
have  sufficiently  examined  all  but  the  following  three:  Les  Fi- 
gures du  Nouveau  Testament  (1554),  Les  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine 
(1555),  and  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes  (1557). 

The  Figures  du  Nouveau  Testament  is  composed  of  ninety-five 
woodcuts  by  Bernard  Salomon  or  by  his  pupils,  and  a  number  of 
sixains  by  Fontaine.  In  a  notice  to  the  reader,  the  printer,  Jean 
de  Tournes,  says  that  illustrations  make  a  more  lasting  impres- 
sion on  the  mind  than  mere  oral  instruction  does,  "  a  cause  de 
quoy  vous  ay  fait  dresser  ce  present  livret  de  figures,  prinses  sus 
les  histoires  du  Nouveau  Testament,  et  concernans  les  principaux 
articles,  mysteres,  et  points  de  nostre  salut  et  sainte  foy  chretienne 
et  catholique,  avec  1'exposition,  en  petis  vers,  mise  brievement  au 
dessouz  de  chacune  d'icelles.  Recevez  le  donq,  Lecteurs,  pour 
recreation  a  Tceil,  ayde  a  la  me'moire,  et  contentement  a  1'esprit." 2 

The  sixains  by  Fontaine  —  some  seventy  in  all  —  are  undeserv- 
ing of  the  name  of  poetry.  In  a  notice  to  the  reader,  Fontaine 
says  that  "  la  contrainte  de  la  brievete,  la  taille,  et  le  sujet,"  and 
also  his  desire  to  avoid  stiffness  and  obscurity,  have  perhaps  laid 

1  La  Croix  du  Maine  alone  mentions  "  plusieurs  Odes  et  autres  Poesies,  im- 
prime'es  a  Paris  par  Vincent  Sertenas,  1'an  1554." 

2  For  the  contents  of  the  Figures  du  N.  T.,  see  Bibliography,  A,  no.  n. 

209 


210  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

his  verses  open  to  censure,  and  adds  that  if  any  one  thinks  he  can 
do  better,  he  may  try. 

Fontaine's  remarks  to  the  reader  also  contain  the  following 
lines  concerning  orthography: 

Mais  touchant  1'ortographe,  Ton  a  tenu  le  meilleur  moyen  que  Ton  a  peu, 
pour  les  vari£tez  qui  sont  aujourd'hui  en  la  langue  francoise  entre  les  savans, 
quant  a  resoudre  si  1'on  doit  suivre  la  derivation  ou  prononciation:  mesme, 
partie  par  inavertence,  partie  pour  suivre  la  naive  douceur  de  la  pronon- 
ciation francoise,  en  quelques  mots  trouverez  quelquefois  une  lettre  ou  deux 
laissees,  ce  que  vous  plaira  supporter,  et  prendre  le  tout  en  meilleure  part.1 

Of  greater  importance  than  the  Figures  du  Nouveau  Testament 
is  the  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine,  published  in  1555  by  Thibault 
Payen,  of  Lyons.  Its  four  hundred  pages  are  a  veritable  mine  of 
information  relating  to  the  literary  men  and  women  of  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century;  and  not  only  is  it  invaluable  for  general 
literary  history,  but  it  also  affords  a  great  deal  of  material  for  the 
biography  of  Fontaine  himself.2 

Among  the  varied  contents  of  the  Ruisseaux  there  are  a  number 
of  poems  entitled  Le  Passetemps  des  amis,3  which  are  of  interest 
for  the  light  they  shed  on  the  literary  manners  of  the  time. 

The  Passetemps  consists  of  epistles  and  epigrams  which  repre- 
sent the  remains  of  a  correspondence  carried  on  by  Fontaine  and 
his  friends.  The  poets  who  contributed  to  the  collection  —  a 
good-natured,  poetry-mad  set,  provincials  for  the  most  part  — 
were  Guillaume  des  Autelz  (under  the  imperfect  anagram  Tes- 
hault),  Jean  Orri,  Gabriel  Tamot,  Jean  Dugue,  Francois  1' Archer, 
Michel  du  Rochay,  Denys  Sauvage,  Nicole  Le  Jouvre,  Antoine 

1  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  orthography  of  the  above  quotation  with  that 
of  Fontaine's  other  writings. 

*  Nearly  all  of  Goujet's  article  on  Fontaine  is  derived  from  the  Ruisseaux.  — 
For  a  complete  list  of  the  persons  addressed  in  the  Ruisseaux,  see  Bibliography,  A, 
no.  12.  —  A  great  part  of  the  contents  of  the  Ruisseaux  has  already  been  examined: 
the  correspondence  between  Fontaine  and  Jean  Dugu6,  and  other  "  familiar  and 
domestic  "  epistles;    the  elegies  on  the  death  of  Catherine  and  Ren6  Fontaine; 
epigrams,  odes,  Dieu  gard,  and  estreines;   the  translations  of  the  Remedia  Amoris 
and  of  the  enigmas  attributed  to  Symposius;  and  the  marine  eclogue. 

*  Pp.  225  ff. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  21 1 

Perard,  Rene  Chandelier,  Jean  de  Morel,  Alexis  Gaudin,  Antoine 
de  Surie,  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet,  Hubert  Philippe  de  Villiers, 
and  Fontaine.1  From  the  verses  which  I  shall  quote  it  will  be  seen 
that  Maitre  Charles  was  regarded  by  his  fellow  poets  as  a  sort  of 
Malherbe,  whose  esteem  and  opinions  were  eagerly  sought  after. 
For  instance,  E.  H.  pays  tribute  to  him  as  follows: 

II  me  desplaist  que  n'ay  fait  mon  devoir 
En  mon  logis  de  te  mieux  recevoir: 
Car  un  ruisseau  (c'est  bien  chose  certaine) 
N'est  rien  au  pris  d'une  vive  fontaine: 
Le  ruisseau  suys  limonneux,  toutesfoys 
Favorise  je  coule  quelquefoys: 
Fontaine  es  tu  en  France  renommee. 

E.  H.'s  manner  soon  changes.  After  saying  that  "  il  a  vu  les 
loups  "  —  that  is,  rapacious  printers  who  have  cost  him  "  six 
vingtz  ecus  "  —  he  accuses  Fontaine  of  belittling  his  ability  as  a 

poet: 

Mon  nom  n'a  pas  si  bonne  renommee, 
A  ton  avis  ce  n'est  que  bruit  qui  court 
Legerement  parmy  les  gens  de  court  .  .  . 
II  m'est  avis  qu'il  y  a  dans  ton  cueur 
Quelque  secret  de  ma  veine  moqueur: 
S'il  est  ainsi,  done  un  potier  provoque 
L'autre  potier,  et  de  son  art  se  moque. 

Fontaine  replies: 

J'ay  souvent  dit  que  tu  as  bonne  veine: 
Mais  me  contrains  de  te  dire  a  cette  heure 
Que  par  le  monde  y  en  a  de  meilleure. 

He  then  adds  a  bit  of  self-criticism,  which  is  not  altogether  devoid 
of  the  vanity  so  often  found  in  his  works: 

J'ay  veu  que  jeune  en  chaleur  je  rimoye, 
Mais  1'aage  meur  en  mit  tant  bas  la  joye 
Qu'il  a  beaucoup  mes  Muses  refroidies, 
Et  par  f  roideur  rendues  moins  hardies  .  .  . 

1  Other  poets  signed  merely  their  initials:  E.  H.,  F.  P.,  V.  L.,  S.  H.  —  The  poems 
of  the  Passetemps  were  composed  at  various  dates,  some  as  early  as  1535,  others  as 
late  as  1547.  Extracts  from  the  epistles  of  Fontaine's  uncle,  Jean  Dugu6,  are  given 
in  chapter  i,  above. 


212  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Je  suis  ami,  et  moqueur  ne  suis  point, 

Ny  controlleur:  ains  quand  il  vient  a  point 

A  mes  amis  je  dy  ouvertement, 

(Quand  on  m'enquiert)  tel  est  mon  sentiment  .  .  . 

et  je  n'entens  mesdire, 

Aymant  trop  mieux  me  taire  que  mal  dire  .  .  . 
Avant  juger,  je  ly,  je  voy,  j'escoute  .  .  . 
Nouveau  ne  suis,  tu  dois  estre  asseur6 
Que  je  suis  faict,  et  desja  tout  Ieurr6. 
J'ayme  la  Muse  avecques  modestie, 
Et  la  personne  a  douceur  convertie: 
Et  n'ayme  pas  ny  gens  qui  tant  se  vantent 
Par  leurs  propos,  ny  vers  qui  tant  s'esventent. 
Neuf  ans  entiers  et  plus  je  me  suis  teu: 
Puis  peu  de  gens  de  mes  ceuvres  ont  eu:  * 
Mais  toutesfois  j'ay  regret  bien  sou  vent 
De  m'estre  mis  encore  si  tost  au  vent : 
Car  ne  quiers  voir  mon  nom  tant  exalte1, 
J'en  laisse  faire  a  la  posterite. 

Fontaine  got  along  better  with  Jean  Orri,  "  advocat  en  la  ville 
du  Mans,"  than  with  the  susceptible  E.  H.  Orri,  if  we  are  to 
believe  Maitre  Charles's  praises,  was  a  learned  man,  and  also  a 
most  agreeable  entertainer: 

En  premier  lieu,  vous  avez  du  savoir 
Certes  trop  plus  que  je  ne  pense  avoir, 
Soit  en  Latin  ou  Frangoys,  vers  ou  prose, 
Qui  est  en  vous  une  louable  chose. 
En  second  point  une  joyeusete 
Avez  meslee  avecques  privaute, 
De  tel'  fagon,  et  de  si  bonne  sorte, 
Qu'  impossible  est  qu'une  personne  sorte 
D'avecques  vous  le  coeur  d'ennuy  charge. 

Orri's  own  words  indicate  that  he  was  indeed  a  jovial  person. 
When  Fontaine  chides  him  for  neglecting  the  Muses,  he  replies: 

Dont  cause  sont  mille  cinq  cens  affaires 
Que  j'ay  le  jour,  qui  me  sont  necessaires: 
Et  puis  la  nuict  fault  a  la  femme  entendre, 
Qui  jour  et  nuict  ne  fait  que  ses  laz  tendre, 
Tant  qu'il  convient,  quand  doy  prendre  repos 

1  Between  1537  and  1545  Fontaine  published  only  the  Contr'amye  de  Court. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  213 

De  mon  esprit,  travailler  o  le  dos: 

Ou  1'endemain  faudroit  (qui  fort  me  poise) 

De  Xantippe  ouyr  la  dure  noyse, 

Ou  delaisser  tout  soudain  la  maison 

Com'  Socrates. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Orri,  Fontaine  was  put  in  communica- 
tion with  Gabriel  Tamot,  an  aged  lawyer  of  Le  Mans.1  Orri 
writes  of  him  to  Fontaine  as  follows: 

quelqu'un  qui  m'a  prie  assez 
De  luy  donner  de  vous  la  congnoissance, 
Dont  vous  parlay  (j'en  ay  bien  souvenance) 
En  vostre  hostel.    II  est  de  nostre  court: 
De  son  savoir  (pour  vous  parler  plus  court) 
Je  n'en  dy  rien,  vous  en  congnoistrez  1'art 
En  goutant  bien  1'epistre  du  vieillart 
Qu'il  vous  envoye. 

Upon  receiving  the  old  man's  epistle,  Fontaine  wrote  to  Orri: 

Elle  a  bon  vent,  et  marine  en  effect, 
Dont  suis  joyeux  que  tel  honneur  me  faict. 

Tamot's  epistle  is  interesting,  notwithstanding  it  smacks  of  the 
sovereign  poets  he  mentions,  Alain  Chartier,  Meschinot,  Milet, 

and  Nesson: 

Jeune  ay  este,  maintenant  suis  vieillart, 

Passe,  casse,  ma  rime  est  de  vieil  art 

Peu  estimee  entre  jeunes  auteurs, 

De  gens  lettrez,  et  [?  de]  lettres  amateurs. 

Car  on  m'a  dit  qu'en  bon  art  poetique 

Tu  es  expert,  garni  de  theorique, 

De  bons  propos  et  science  certaine  .  .  . 

Assez  souvent  je  rime  sans  raison, 

Mais  pour  rimer  n'est  riche  ma  maison: 2 

Rime  et  raison  sont  tresbonnes  ensemble, 

1  Concerning  Orri,  Tamot,  and  other  lawyers  of  Le  Mans,  cf.  C.  Jug6,  Nicolas 
Denisot  du  Mans,  Le  Mans  and  Paris,  1907,  pp.  7,  n,  and  12.    La  Croix  du  Maine, 
who  says  (vol.  i,  p.  564)  that  Orry  wrote  "  quelques  m£moires  et  recherches  des 
antiquites  du  Maine  "  and  an  art  of  poetry,  concludes  thus:   "  Orry  florissoit  au 
Mans,  exerceant  son  6tat  d'avocat,  1'an  1544,  sous  le  regne  de  Francois  I."   La  Croix 
du  Maine  also  has  a  few  words  on  Tamot  (vol.  i,  p.  256). 

2  For  Fontaine's  reply  to  this  line,  see  p.  133,  above. 


214  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Bienheureux  est  qui  des  biens  en  assemble: 
Ce  n'est  pas  moy:  car  je  congnoy  tresbien, 
Et  longtemps  a,  que  je  n'y  acquiers  rien: 
Et  m'est  besoing  savoir  autre  mestier. 
Je  ne  suys  pas  un  maistre  Alain  Chartier, 
Un  Meschinot,  un  Milet,  un  Nesson, 
Desquelz  on  oyt  le  poetique  son.1 

After  old  age,  youth.  A  timorous  stripling,  F.  P.,  yearns  to 
write  to  Fontaine,  but  he  hesitates: 

Mais  quoy  ?    Phebus  me  vint  tanser, 
Et  me  reprint  ainsi  dessoubs 
Pareil  propos:  Son  stile  doux, 
Ses  vers  tant  beaux  et  mesurez, 
Ses  motz  et  termes  azurez, 
Dont  il  a  en  maintes  provinces 
Et  acces  et  credit  aux  princes, 
Ne  te  donnent  ilz  a  entendre 
Qu'escrire  a  luy  ne  dois  pretendre  ? 

Finally,  grown  accustomed  to  Fontaine's  greatness,  he  summons 
enough  courage  to  write.  Maitre  Charles's  reply  is  very  modest. 
If  I  am  "  great  "  and  "  subtle,"  he  says,  credit  is  due  God  alone, 

Qui  m'a  (sans  que  vanter  m'en  ose) 
D'un  petit  rien  fait  quelque  chose. 

Fontaine  exchanged  with  Nicole  Le  Jouvre,  "  scribe  de  1'Uni- 
versite  de  Bourges,"  several  epistles  dealing  chiefly  with  minor 
details  of  everyday  life.2  That  Le  Jouvre  regarded  Fontaine  as 
an  eminent  poet  is  shown  by  the  following  lines,  composed  shortly 
after  the  writer's  recovery  from  an  illness: 

1  The  venerable  Tamot's  verses  excited  the  wrath  of  the  sharp-tongued  Colletet, 
who  says  (Vies  des  poetesfranfois,  fol.  479) :  "  Quand  je  vois  un  vieillard  commencer 
a  monter  sur  le  Parnasse  en  un  temps  od  il  ne  devrait  plus  penser  qu'3.  descendre  au 
tombeau,  et  faire  la  cour  aux  doctes  pucelles  en  un  age  d6cr6pit  oft  Ton  a  de  coutume 
de  les  abandonner,  il  me  semble  qu'il  n'est  pas  moms  ridicule  que  de  voir  un  philo- 
sophe  danser  en  long  habit  les  matassins  et  faire  publiquement  des  pantalonnades." 

1  Le  Jouvre  was  rather  well  known  in  his  day.  Francois  Habert,  who  addressed 
many  poems  to  him,  wrote  in  his  memory  an  epitaph  which  begins: 

Un  Nicolas  Le  Jouvre  surnomme, 
Francois  poete  excellent  renomm£, 
Grec  et  latin  et  de  bonne  nature, 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  215 

Tes  vers  exquis  plains  d'amour  violente 

Le  tien  amy  de  mort  ont  suscite, 

Duquel  la  main  tardive  et  negligente 

Avec  ton  stile  as  de  somme  excite: 

Or  puys  que  Tas  a  revivre  incite, 

Et  que  de  mort  a  rompu  ses  obstacles, 

Canonise  seras  aux  habitacles 

Des  Muses  neuf  par  ta  veine  immortelle: 

Mais  tu  feras  beaucoup  de  telz  miracles 

Avant  qu'on  t'offre  ou  gros  cierge  ou  chandelle. 

Le  Jouvre  was  not  the  only  poet  on  whom  Fontaine's  verses  had 
a  beneficial  effect  in  the  time  of  illness.  Guillaume  des  Autelz  was 
willing  to  do  without  wine,  provided  his  supply  of  "  clear  water  " 

lasted:  Monsieur  le  medecin  a  dit 

Que  pour  moy  le  vin  est  trop  chault, 

Et  pourtant  le  m'a  interdit : 

Mais,  par  mon  ame,  il  ne  m'en  chault: 

Je  boy  de  1'eau  clere  qui  vault 

Cent  mille  fois  plus  que  le  vin, 

De  la  fontaine  de  la  hault, 

Dont  sort  le  ruisseau  caballin.1 

Bourges,  tu  as  le  corps  en  s6pulture, 

Dont  Saint-Brisson  sur  Loire  sa  naissance. 

(Cited  by  Colletet,  Vies  des  poetesfran$ois,  fol.  307.) 

In  an  epistle  (Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  26)  Fontaine  writes  Le  Jouvre  as  follows: 

Je  suis  joyeux  qu'as  si  bien  rencontre", 

Qu'es  en  estat,  gr&ce,  et  promesse  entre, 

Envers  la  dame  en  cueur  des  plus  entieres, 

C'est  a  savoir  madame  de  Lynieres. 

Que  pleust  a  Dieu  qu'en  veissions  maintes  telles, 

Je  n'aurois  pas  ainsi  courtes  les  ailes, 

Un  peu  plus  hault  voleroit  nostre  stile: 

Un  Mecenas  fait  bien  un  bon  Vergile. 

According  to  Goujet,  Madame  de  Lynieres  was  Catherine  d'Amboise. 

1  For  other  extracts  from  Des  Autelz's  correspondence  with  Fontaine,  see  pp.  1 16 
and  117,  above.  In  an  epistle  written  to  Fontaine  by  Des  Autelz  when  a  student  at 
Valence  (May,  1546),  the  folio  whig  interesting  lines  occur: 

Le  bruit  qu'acquiert  nostre  docteur  Coras, 
Qui  sans  propos  inutile  et  frivole, 
Efface  ici  le  grand  nom  de  Bartole. 
Desja  il  fait  venir  les  transmontains 
S'bumilier  et  n'estre  tant  hautains: 
Desja  on  voit  tomber  1'outrecuidance 
D'ltaliens  se  venans  rendre  en  France. 
Certes  Bude"  1'avoit  ja  commence: 


216  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Such  are  a  few  examples  of  the  verses  of  the  Passetemps  des 
amis  —  mediocre  verses  from  a  technical  point  of  view,  but  of 
interest  because  they  represent  the  efforts  of  a  group  of  honest 
Frenchmen  at  a  time  when  almost  every  man  felt  it  his  duty  to 
add  to  his  renown  by  writing  poetry.1 

In  1555,  the  year  in  which  the  Ruisseaux  was  published,  Fon- 
taine received  from  his  fellow  citizens  of  Lyons  one  of  the  highest 
honors  in  their  power  to  bestow:  he  was  appointed  temporary 
principal  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite,  then  one  of  the  foremost 
educational  institutions  of  southern  France. 

M.  Ferdinand  Buisson,  in  his  study  of  Sebastien  Castellion,2 
gives  the  following  brief  account  of  the  founding  of  the  College  de 
la  Trinite: 

Ce  petit  college  n'avait  etc  longtemps  qu'une  modeste  6cole  etablie  dans 
les  "  granges  " 3  du  couvent,  au  milieu  des  vignes  et  des  prairies,  par  les 
soins  et  aux  frais  d'une  sorte  de  confrerie  laique  de  bourgeois  lyonnais.  La 
prospe'rite  meme  de  leur  entreprise  les  avait  amenes  a  la  remettre  aux  mains 
de  la  ville  en  1527.  Le  clerge,  il  est  vrai,  avait  fait  des  difficultes,  reclame", 
menace  au  nom  des  droits  de  1'figlise  toujours  meconnus,  mais  les  echevins 
avaient  tenu  bon.  L'un  d'eux  etait  un  homme  considerable,  aussi  celebre 
alors  qu'oublie  depuis,  Symphorien  Champier,  auteur  de  plus  de  cinquante 
ouvrages  et,  ce  qui  vaut  mieux,  fondateur  de  plusieurs  etablissements  utiles, 

Autres  savans  1'avoyent  bien  avanc6. 
Donques  Coras  maintenant  donnera 
La  fin  a  tout,  Coras  couronnera. 

(Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  233.) 

Jean  de  Coras  (1513-72)  taught  law  at  Toulouse,  Angers,  Orleans,  Paris,  Valence, 
Padua,  and  Ferrara.    Bartolus,  the  Italian  jurist  and  professor,  died  in  1357. 

1  Cf.  Sainte-Beuve,  cited  by  C.  H.  C.  Wright,  A  History  of  French  Literature, 
New  York  and  London,  1912,  p.  133:  "  On  ne  songeait  pas  &  1'apanage  du  talent. 
On  faisait  des  vers  comme  on  fait  de  la  m^decine.    Tout  Iettr6  faisait  des  vers. 
Ainsi  les  rimes  de  Pimprimeur  Dolet,  de  1'avocat  Sibilet,  de  Peletier  du  Mans,  de 
Pasquier." 

2  Sebastien  Castellion,  sa  vie  et  son  ceuvre,  Paris,  1892,  vol.  i,  pp.  17-18.    Concern- 
ing the  College  de  la  Trinit6,  see  also  Demogeot,  Le  College  de  la  Trinite,  in  Lyon 
ancien  et  moderne,  Lyons,  1838-43,  vol.  i;  Charvet,  Le  College  de  la  Trinite,  in  the 
Memoires  de  la  Societe  Hit.  .  .  .  de  Lyon,  1874;    Charvet,  £tienne  Martellange, 
Lyons,  1874,  pp.  111-140;  J.  L.  Gerig,  Le  College  de  la  Trinite  avant  1540,  in  the 
Revue  de  la  Renaissance,  beginning  janvier-f6vrier,  1908,  p.  73. 

8  Maison  de  ferme  et  dependances. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  217 

notamment  de  1'ecole  de  medecine;  ce  fut  lui  qui,  "  regrettant  de  voir 
mourir  1'exercice  des  bonnes  lettres  en  cette  ville  et  s'efforgant  1'y  ramener," 
prit  une  part  decisive  a  la  fondation  du  college:  il  obtint  1'assentiment  de 
1'archeve'que  Francois  de  Rohan,  moyennant  que  le  choix  du  recteur  fut 
soumis  a  1'approbation  episcopate.  Le  consulat  de  son  cote  donna  tous  ses 
soins  au  college  naissant,  agrandit  les  locaux,  institua  quatre  classes,  etablit 
une  retribution  scolaire  (2  sols  4  den.)  et  appela  des  professeurs,  dont  quel- 
ques-uns  avaient  deja  ou  eurent  bientot  de  la  renommee. 

The  first  principal  of  the  college  was  a  native  of  Lyons,  Guil- 
laume  Durand,  an  excellent  teacher,  and  the  author  of  several 
works  in  Latin.  Durand  was  succeeded  by  Jean  Canappe,  a 
physician,  especially  celebrated  for  his  efforts  toward  having 
surgery  taught  in  the  French  language,  and  for  his  translations  of 
the  works  of  classical  writers  on  medicine.  In  1530  filoy  du 
Verger  accepted  the  principalship,  and  was  replaced  shortly  after 
by  Jean  Raynier,  Jacques  Vasuel,  and  Jacques  Bobynet  or 
Robynier,  who  in  turn  were  succeeded  in  1533  by  Claude  de 
Cublize.  Cublize  was  followed  by  the  most  famous  teacher  in 
the  annals  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite,  Barthelemy  Aneau,  the 
author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  and  of  a  score  of  other  works,  some 
in  Latin,  some  in  French.1 

Aneau,  who  had  been  professor  of  rhetoric  in  the  college  since 
about  1533,  was  a  native  of  Bourges,  where  he  studied  under 
Melchior  Wolmar,  from  whom  he  doubtless  got  many  of  the 
Protestant  ideas  that  brought  about  his  death  at  the  hands  of  a 
mob  in  1561.  He  was  promoted  to  the  principalship  in  1540,  and 
held  the  position  until  1551,  when  he  resigned,  probably  because 
of  the  feeling  against  him  as  a  Protestant. 

Aneau 's  successor  was  Jacques  Frachet,  licencie  en  droit,  who 
began  his  duties  in  January,  I552.2  Frachet  was  a  most  unscrupu- 
lous person,  judging  from  the  following  item  in  the  catalogue  of 
the  Municipal  Archives  of  Lyons: 

1  Concerning  Aneau,  see  the  series  of  articles  by  J.  L.  Gerig  in  The  Romanic 
Review,  beginning  April-June,  1910,  p.  181. 

2  A.  Pe'ricaud,  Notes  et  documents  pour  servir  d  I'histoire  de  Lyon,  Lyons,  1838; 
see  under  the  date  of  15  Janvier,  1552. 


2l8  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Indemnit6  de  15  livres  tournois  accordee  a  Jean  Baron,  a  Sebastian 
Vanerot,  et  a  Michel  Carasse,  regents  du  college  de  la  Trinite,  qui  avaient 
6t6  contraints  de  vivre  a  1'auberge  pendant  18  jours,  a  cause  de  la  disparition 
de  Jacques  Frachet,  lequel  avait  enleve"  les  meubles  de  cet  6tablissement, 
dont  il  6tait  principal  recteur.1 

After  Frachet's  hasty  departure  the  college  was  without  a  head. 
Charles  Fontaine  was  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancy.  The  following 
unpublished  document  shows  that  he  not  only  took  Frachet's 
place,  but  also  rendered  timely  assistance  to  the  three  stranded 
regents  mentioned  above  and  to  a  no  less  unfortunate  porter: 

A  Me  Charles  Fontaine,  me  es  arz,  esleu  par  provision  au  colleige  de  la 
Trinite  dudict  Lyon,  par  mandement  du  xviij6  juillet  MV°lv  et  quittance 
rendue,  la  somme  de  VIxxl.tz.,  a  luy  con  venue  et  accordee  estre  paiee,  tant 
pour  avoir  nourry  et  entretenu  audict  colleige  troys  regentz  et  ung  portier 
qui  avoyent  este  laissez  audict  colleige  par  Me  Jacques  Fraschet  jadis  princi- 
pal d'icelluy,  lequel  Fraschet  auroit  absente  ledict  colleige  et  1'auroit  laisse" 
despourveu  et  denue  de  tous  meubles  et  sans  aulcun  gouverneur  ne  conduc- 
teur,  au  lieu  duquel  et  ad  ce  que  ledict  colleige  ne  demourast  despourveu  de 
regentz  icelluy  Fontaine  auroit  este  par  maniere  de  provision  estably  et 
constitue  principal,  que  pour  tous  despens,  dommages  et  interest  par  ledict 
Fontaine  faictz  et  soustenuz,  tant  pour  avoir  renvoye  son  mesnage  audict 
colleige  que  pour  ses  salles  et  vacations  et  aultres  fraiz  qu'il  a  este  contrainct 
faire  et  supporter  pendant  ledict  temps  qu'il  a  demeure  audict  colleige,  et 
pour  ce  renvoye  en  une  aultre  maison  qu'il  a  est6  contrainct  louer  pour  sa 
demeurance.  Pour  toutes  lesquelles  choses  luy  auroit  este"  accorde  ladicte 
somme  de  VIXX  livres  tournois.1 

Fontaine  held  the  principalship  of  the  College  de  la  Trinite 
only  a  few  weeks.  He  was  appointed  in  June,  and  on  July  9  a 
permanent  principal,  Jacques  Dupuy,  was  named.3  Dupuy's 
conduct  was  so  disgraceful  that  he  was  dismissed  on  July  21, 
1558,  and  Barthelemy  Aneau  was  again  called  upon  to  take 
charge  of  the  school  that  he  had  made  famous.4  Aneau  accepted 

1  B  77.   I  prefer  citing  the  brief  item  of  the  catalogue  to  reproducing  the  original 
document,  which  is  long  and  obscure. 

2  Municipal  Archives  of  Lyons,  register  CC  1018,  fol.  16. 

8  P6ricaud,  Notes  et  documents,  etc.;  see  under  the  date  of  21  juillet,  1558. 

4  "  Revocation  de  Jacques  Dupuy,  principal  du  college  de  la  Trinite',  dont  la 
conduite  scandaleuse  compromettait  la  bonne  renomme'e  de  cette  institution  et  avait 
soulevd  1'indignation  de  tous  les  honnfites  gens;  ouvertures  faites  a  B.  Aneau  pour 
Pengager  a  reprendre  la  direction  de  cet  e'tablissement."  (Catalogue  of  the  Munici- 
pal Archives  of  Lyons,  BB  81.) 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  219 

the  position,  and  held  it  until  his  death  in  1561.  In  1567  the 
college  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  with  the  celebrated 
preacher  Edmond  Auger  at  its  head. 

In  1557  Jean  Citoys,  of  Lyons,  published  Fontaine's  Odes, 
enigmes,  et  epigrammes,  adressez  pour  etreines  au  Roy,  d  la  Royne, 
a  Madame  Marguerite,  et  autres  princes  et  princesses  de  France. 
The  enigmas  and  the  epigrams  are  too  trivial  to  be  noticed.  The 
odes  are  in  the  main  mediocre.1  A  few  stanzas  of  one  ode,2  how- 
ever, deserve  quoting,  since  they  show  that  Fontaine,  forced  by 
want,  continued  to  beg  during  the  reign  of  Henry  II,  as  he  had 
done  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  Evidently  chagrined  at  the 
success  of  portraitists  at  court,  he  draws  for  the  king  a  parallel 
between  the  arts  of  painting  and  poetry: 

O  foible  art  que  Ton  vante  tant 
Que  de  pourtraire  un  grand  seigneur! 
Qui  donra  mil  escus  contant 
Pour  acquerir  tant  peu  d'honneur, 

D 'avoir  son  corps  ou  son  seul  chef 
A  quelques  yeus  represent^, 
Soit  de  plat,  ou  soit  de  relief, 
Et  au  vray  naif  raporte  ? 

Peu  de  gens,  et  pour  peu  de  temps, 
Verront  ton  image  ou  pourtrait: 
Par  cas  de  feu,  de  pluye  ou  vents 
Sera  consume  ou  deffait. 

Mais  ce  que  la  Muse  ha  de  beau 
Se  fait  bien  voir  par  1'univers: 
Tousjours  dure  son  saint  tableau, 
Couloure  et  seme  de  vers. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  ode,  Fontaine,  seeking  to  soften  the  king, 
declares  that  he  is  not  pleading  for  the  poets  of  France  alone,  but 
for  the  "  pale  poets  "  of  all  lands: 

1  For  a  list  of  the  persons  to  whom  the  poems  of  the  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes 
are  inscribed,  see  Bibliography,  A,  no.  16. 

2  P.  5:  Au  tres  chrestien  Roy  de  France,  Henry  second  de  ce  nom. 


220  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Je  ne  le  di  tant  seulement 
Pour  la  France  assez  liberate: 
Je  le  di  gSne'ralement 
Pour  toute  terre  illib6rale 

Et  trop  tardive  a  faire  bien 
A  ecus  qui  a  son  loz  ne  cessent, 
Aus  pales  poetes,  combien 
Que  dix  mil  autres  s'y  engressent. 

Another  poem  of  the  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes  discloses  the 
fact  that  Fontaine  did  not  confine  himself  to  asking  help  from 
afar;  he  even  made  a  journey  to  court  in  behalf  of  his  five 
children: 

Si  les  meres  des  oisillons 

Par  les  buissons  et  les  sillons 

S'en  vont  la  bechee  chercher 

Pour  1'aporter  a  leur  fruit  cher: 

Qui  est  ce  qui  blamer  pourra 

Ma  Muse  quand  elle  courra 

Vers  celle  grand'  cour  honorable, 

Des  Muses  1'honneur  et  la  table, 

Pour  y  rechercher  cinq  miettes, 

Sauvans  mes  cinq  de  grans  disettes, 

Mes  cinq  petis,  a  brief  parler, 

Qui  ne  peuvent  encor  voler  ? 

Mais  quand,  par  temps,  voler  pourront, 

Eux  mesmes  ils  en  chercheront.1 

There  is  in  the  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes  a  short  piece 
which,  to  say  the  least,  is  out  of  place.  Almost  the  entire  volume 
is  addressed  to  princes  and  princesses,  and  yet  Fontaine  has  the 
impudence  to  say  in  reply  "  to  some  of  his  friends  who  were 
amazed  because  he  had  not  been  advanced  by  princes  ": 

J'ay  des  moyens  (je  le  say  bien) 
De  rehausser  mon  petit  bien: 
Mais  pour  conclusion  donner, 
Je  n'ay  le  fait  ny  le  meintien 
De  flater  ny  d'importuner.2 

1  P.  68:  Raison  de  son  voyage  d  la  court.   M.  C16ment,  in  his  article  on  the  Poete 
courtisan,  makes  much  of  this  poem. 
*  P.  81. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  22 1 

Now,  it  is  possible  to  overlook  Fontaine's  flattering  and  impor- 
tuning, —  the  customs  of  the  time  permitted  that;  but  it  is 
impossible  to  excuse  the  sentiments  expressed  above,  which  are 
quite  contrary  to  fact.  Like  the  greater  part  of  contemporary 
writers,  Fontaine  flattered  and  importuned,  and  he  should  not 
have  endeavored  to  conceal  his  ill  success  with  a  falsehood. 
Certainly  he  should  not  have  been  so  injudicious  as  to  put  his 
falsehood  in  the  very  volume  that  contains  so  much  flattery. 

It  remains  to  examine  the  last  work  published  by  Fontaine, 
Salutation  au  Roy  Charles  IX,  sus  son  entree  en  sa  noble  et  antique 
mile  de  Lyon  (I564).1  The  nature  of  this  poem  indicates  that 
Maitre  Charles  was  chosen  by  his  townsmen  to  compose  a  greet- 
ing to  the  king.  The  opening  lines  follow: 

Ton  grand  Lyon  t'attendoit  en  automne,2 

Roy  ties  humain,  laissant  face  felonne 

Que  luy  avoit  donne  ce  cruel  Mars, 

Qui  tourmentoit  ta  France  en  toutes  parts: 

Mais  tout  ainsi  qu'apres  le  dur  yver 

Le  doulx  printemps  nous  voyons  arriver, 

La  douce  paix  apres  la  rude  guerre 

Vient  resjouir  ta  plantureuse  terre.3 

Car  dans  brief  temps  toute  bellique  oppresse 

Ton  grand  pals  plus  ne  charge  ne  presse, 

Donnant  conge  a  ces  Italiens 

Et  Espaignols  les  armes  manians: 

Donnant  conge  aux  Reistres  et  Suices, 

Sus  nous  (helas!)  descenduz  pour  noz  vices:  * 

Mais  deschassant  par  magnanimite" 

Tost  les  Anglois  en  leur  coing  limite, 

Qui  occupoient  ton  fort  Havre  de  Grace: & 

Et  puis  encor  Dieu  t'a  bien  fait  la  grace 

1  Lyons,  Benolt  Rigaud,  and  Paris,  Guillaume  de  Nyverd. 

8  Charles  IX  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  reached  Lyons  in  the  summer  of  1564. 
Their  visit  was  cut  short  by  an  epidemic.  Cf.  A.  Steyert,  Nouvelle  hisloire  de  Lyon, 
Lyons,  1899,  vol.  iii,  pp.  139-140.  Fontaine's  Salutation  was  finished  on  June  13, 
1564. 

8  The  Edict  of  Amboise,  March  19,  1563,  closed  the  First  Civil  War. 

4  The  part  played  by  foreign  troops  in  the  Civil  Wars  is  well  known. 

6  The  English  garrison  withdrew  from  Le  Havre  in  August,  1563. 


222  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Qu'avecques  eulx  traictas  la  belle  paix, 
Tesmoing  la  joye  et  feuz  qui  en  sont  faicts: 
Car  trop  mieux  vault  la  paix  et  alliance 
A  ses  voisins  que  guerre  et  defiance. 
Si  tels  biens  feis  en  ta  minorite1,1 
Quels  fruicts  naitront  de  ta  majorite  ? 

Fontaine  then  sings  the  praises  of  Lyons:  its  artisans  are  incom- 
parable, its  commercial  renown  world-wide.  "  Thy  father  and 
mother,  Charles,"  he  continues,  "  were  warmly  received  at 
Lyons  in  I548,2  and  the  magistracy,  princes,  counts,  viscounts, 
lords,  all  the  people  are  ready  to  welcome  thee  as  they  did  thy 
august  parents.  Theaters  will  be  erected,  music  will  ring,  the 
streets  will  be  thronged  with  people,  the  Saone  will  be  covered 
with  boats.  Come  with  all  thy  pomp,  O  king,  thy  faithful  city 
awaits  thee  with  impatience." 

Such  is  the  last  poem  penned  by  the  indefatigable  Fontaine. 
Like  the  Ode  de  Vantiquite  et  excellence  de  la  mile  de  Lyon,  the  Ode 
pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  mile  de  Paris,  and  the  scores  of  minor  pieces 
addressed  by  him  to  the  high  and  the  low  of  the  period,  its  im- 
portance lies  solely  in  its  value  as  a  historical  document.8 

After  1564  not  the  slightest  trace  is  to  be  found  of  Fontaine.  A 
searching  examination  of  hundreds  of  volumes  of  prose  and 
poetry  published  during  the  last  thirty-six  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century  has  failed  to  reveal  a  reference  to  him.  Did  he  die 
shortly  after  composing  his  greeting  to  Charles  IX  ?  Goujet 
timidly  suggests  that  he  may  have  been  living  as  late  as  I588.4  I 

1  Charles  IX  was  born  on  June  27,  1550. 

2  Concerning  this  visit  of  Henry  II  and  the  royal  family  to  Lyons,  see  J.  L. 
Gerig,  B.  Aneau,  in  The  Romanic  Review,  April-June,  1911,  pp.  168  ff. 

s  The  Salutation  was  evidently  unknown  to  MM.  Vital  de  Valous  and  Steyert, 
who  annotated  the  reprint  of  the  Discours  de  Ventree  de  Charles  IX  d  Lyon,  Lyons, 
1884. 

4  In  speaking  of  the  fourth  edition  of  the  Fontaine  d' 'amour,  published  in  1588, 
Goujet  says  (Bibl.  franq.,  vol.  xi,  p.  140):  "...  s'il  est  vrai  qu'il  ve'cut  encore, 
comme  on  le  fait  entendre,  quoiqu'un  peu  obscure'ment,  dans  1'avis  au  lecteur,  il 
devoit  fitre  alors  dans  un  age  avanceV'  Unfortunately,  I  have  been  unable  to  find  a 
copy  of  the  edition  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour  to  which  Goujet  refers. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE  223 

am  inclined  to  think  that  he  died  many  years  before  that  date. 
It  is  not  likely  that  such  a  prolific  writer  would  have  laid  aside  his 
pen  between  1564  and  1588.  From  1537  to  1564  he  published  a 
score  of  volumes  of  prose  and  poetry,  and  had  he  lived  after  the 
latter  date,  he  would  probably  have  continued  writing.  In  1 564  he 
was  fifty  years  old,  surely  not  a  sufficiently  advanced  age  to  force 
him  into  retirement.  A  poet  who  had  ground  out  verses  in  the 
face  of  adversity  and  the  triumphant  advance  of  the  Pleiade 
would  hardly  have  ceased  writing  until  the  hand  of  death  was 
upon  him.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  conjecture  with  any 
degree  of  certainty  the  date  of  his  death.  It  was  probably 
between  1564  and  1570  that  Maitre  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien, 
borne  down  by  the  weight  of  poverty  and  freed  from  all  illusions, 
sought  in  another  world  the  happiness  that  had  been  denied  him 
in  this.1 

1  It  is  barely  possible  that  Fontaine  was  living  in  1580.  In  an  edition  of  the  XXI 
£pitres  d'Ovide,  published  at  Paris  in  that  year,  there  is  a  poem,  Sonnet  acrostichic 
sur  la  transmigration  des  bonnes  lettres  d'Athenes  et  Rome  a  Paris,  es  personnes  des 
Herotdes  d'Ovide,  which  had  not  appeared  hi  the  three  previous  editions.  It  is 
impossible  to  decide  whether  Fontaine  was  the  author  of  this  poem.  Had  it  been 
written  by  some  one  else,  it  might  have  borne  the  author's  name.  However  that 
may  be,  the  evidence  is  not  conclusive  enough  to  state  definitely  that  Fontaine  was 
still  alive  in  1580. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CONCLUSION 

Recapitulation.  —  Fontaine's  opinion  of  himself.  —  The  opinions  of  various  critics 
regarding  Fontaine.  —  The  writer's  opinion  of  Fontaine:  a  mediocre  poet;  his 
works  are  valuable  for  the  general  information  they  contain;  a  good  prose  writer; 
a  transition  poet.  —  The  generally  accepted  precursors  of  the  P16iade.  —  Why 
Fontaine  must  be  placed  among  these  precursors.  —  A  typical  man  of  the  French 
Renaissance. 

WE  have  now  followed  Charles  Fontaine  through  fifty  years  of  his 
active  life  —  all  that  can  be  studied  in  the  light  of  authentic 
record.  Beginning  with  his  birth  in  the  shadow  of  the  towers  of 
Notre-Dame,  we  have  seen  him  gaining  an  education  at  his 
father's  knee,  in  the  College  du  Plessis,  and  in  what  is  now  the 
College  de  France.  We  have  seen  him  scorning  the  counsel  of  the 
prudent  Jean  Dugue  and  entering  the  field  of  letters  just  in  time 
to  take  up  arms  for  Marot  against  Sagon.  Then  the  praises  of 
fellow  poets,  visions  of  laurel  and  immortality,  followed  by  the 
first  setback  —  the  disinclination  of  Francis  I  and  other  princes 
to  recognize  his  poetic  genius.  We  have  seen  him  journeying 
across  the  Alps  to  the  court  of  Ferrara  and  returning  to  Lyons, 
empty-handed,  but  not  discouraged.  We  have  seen  him  plunged 
in  sorrow  at  the  bier  of  Catherine,  and  filled  with  joy  at  his  mar- 
riage with  Marguerite  and  again  at  that  with  Flora.  We  have 
seen  the  picture  darken:  children  on  all  sides,  a  lawsuit  that 
helped  to  usher  in  gaunt  and  grim  poverty,  that  made  the  world 
look  somber.  Then  the  struggle  for  bread,  the  printing  shop,  the 
Pleiade,  the  College  de  la  Trinite,  death,  and  oblivion.  And 
throughout  this  more  sad  than  happy  life  a  hail  of  writings: 
verses  of  ambition  and  verses  of  despair;  translations,  epitomes, 
lamentations,  polemics,  love  remedies,  Platonism;  discourses  on 
dreams,  chiromancy,  and  duels;  proverbs  and  "sentences"; 


CONCLUSION  225 

poems  of  passion,  poems  of  consolation,  licentious  poems,  poems 
"  to  incite  to  virtue,"  enigmas,  salutations  to  princes  and  kings, 
greetings  to  friends;  remarks  on  rime,  orthography,  the  methods 
of  translating,  the  French  language,  the  New  World  and  the  Old; 
flattery  of  high  and  low,  defense  of  women  and  of  love,  praise  of 
Lyons  and  of  Paris;  the  New  Testament  and  Saint  Augustine, 
the  ten  commandments,  morning  and  evening  prayers;  biog- 
raphies of  Adam,  Noah,  the  Minotaur,  Frangois  Duaren,  and 
Clement  Marot;  weights,  measures,  and  emperors  of  Rome,  — 
in  short,  a  collection  of  literary  productions  that  bears  witness  to 
the  utter  lawlessness  of  the  French  Renaissance. 

Let  us  now  see  what  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  the  life 
and  works  of  Fontaine;  let  us  try  to  point  out  his  defects  and  his 
merits,  in  order  that  we  may  determine  whether  his  efforts  were 
in  vain,  or  whether  he  deserves  a  niche  in  the  literary  history  of 
the  century  in  which  he  lived. 

Fontaine  had  no  doubts  about  his  own  greatness: 

Je  n'ay  pas  petite  puissance, 
Ny  d' Apollo  peu  de  faveur, 
Je  sens  en  moy  des  ma  naissance 
Une  poetique  ferveur: 

Ferveur  qui  me  donne  des  aesles 
Pour  voler  par  tout  1'univers: 
Aesles  qui  seront  immortelles, 
Comme  immortelz  seront  mes  vers.1 

Le  blond  Phebus  m'a  bien  ose  promettre 
De  rehausser  mon  beau  nom  par  son  metre, 
Et  que  tandis  qu'au  haut  del  il  luira, 
Fontaine  en  France  et  hors  France  on  lira.2 

Xerxes  monte"  dessus  une  montaigne 
Pleura,  voyant  son  camp  par  la  campaigne 
(Camp  qui  n'a  eu  pareil,  ny  depuis  Fheure, 
Ny  paravant),  disant  que  fault  que  meure 
Dedans  cent  ans  telle  gloire  bellique, 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  137:  A  Monsieur  de  Querinec,  et  de  Coadiunal,  gentilshommes 
de  Bretaigne. 

2  Odes,  enigmes,  et  epigrammes,  p.  3:  Accointance  de  Phebus  avec  I'auteur. 


226  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Sans  que  de  tous  un  tout  seul  en  demeure: 
Mais  moy  monte1  sus  le  mont  Thessalique 
Certainement  tant  s'en  fault  que  je  pleure, 
Voyant  marcher  1'escadron  de  mes  vers 
Pres  les  ruisseaux  de  ma  fontaine  ouvers, 
Qu'en  moy  je  ri:  joye  mon  cceur  6point, 
Car  tousjours  vers  jamais  ne  mourront  point.1 

Fontaine's  contemporaries,  too,  thought  him  a  poet  of  merit: 
Cle'ment  Marot,  fitienne  Dolet,  Nicolas  Bourbon,  Jean  Voulte, 
Gilbert  Ducher,  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  Guillaume  des  Autelz, 
Bonaventure  du  Tronchet,  Antoine  Perard,  Denys  Sauvage, 
Berenger  de  la  Tour,  Barthelemy  Aneau,  and  some  of  the  more 
obscure  contributors  to  the  Passetemps  des  amis  mention  him  with 
degrees  of  admiration  ranging  from  "  a  young  man  of  great  hope  " 
to  "  the  equal  of  Maro  and  Marot." 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  Guillaume  Colletet  closed  his 
notice  on  Fontaine  with  the  following  encomium : 

Et  par  tant  de  nobles  et  de  serieux  travaux,  dont  il  obligea  la  republique 
des  bonnes  lettres,  il  eternisa  son  nom  de  telle  sorte  qu'il  n'est  point  de 
fleuve  d'oubli  qui  en  puisse  jamais  etouffer  ou  noyer  la  memoire.2 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  Goujet  was  less  enthusiastic: 

Marot  se  faisoit  gloire  de  1'avoir  pour  defenseur,  et  il  avoit  raison.  Quoi- 
que  Fontaine  lui  fut  inferieur  du  c&te  des  talens  poetiques,  on  ne  laisse  pas  de 
sentir  dans  sa  versification  un  air  aise,  un  tour  ingenieux,  et  une  certaine 
finesse  dans  la  raillerie,  qui  montrent  que  1'exemple  et  les  legons  de  son 
maitre  ne  lui  avoient  point  etc  inutiles.1 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  adverse,  and  occasionally  unjust, 
criticisms  of  Fontaine  began  to  appear.  Viollet-le-Duc,  for 
instance,  transfers  the  "  metaphysical  jargon  "  of  the  fipitre, 
philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour  to  all  of  Fontaine's  works: 

Mais  si  cette  action  [defense  of  Marot]  indique  un  bon  caractere,  porte  a 
la  reconnaissance,  elle  ne  prouve  rien  en  f aveur  du  talent  poetique  de  Charles 
Fontaine,  qui  6tait,  a  mon  avis,  des  plus  faibles.  II  adopte  presque  partout 

1  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  88:   L'Auteur  escrit  ce  dousain  a  I'honneur  de  ses  vers.     It 
should  be  remembered  that  modesty  among  the  poets  of  the  Renaissance  was  rare. 
*  Colletet,  Vies  des  poetes  franqois. 
8  Bibl.  franc.,  vol.  xi,  pp.  112-113. 


CONCLUSION  227 

un  langage  m6taphysique  fort  etrange.  Veut-on,  par  exemple,  avoir  un 
Schantillon  de  son  style  ?  Void  1'extrait  d'une  "  epistre,  philosophant  sur 
la  bonne  amour,  a  une  dame  ": 

Amour,  amye,  est  une  passion  .  .  -1 

On  serait  tout  aussi  eloigne  d'attribuer  ces  vers  platoniques  a  un  Sieve  de 
Marot  que  de  supposer  que  cette  definition  de  "  la  bonne  amour  "  a  pu  satis- 
faire  une  dame  de  la  cour  de  Francois  Ier;  mais  c'est  ainsi  cependant  que 
precede  Charles  Fontaine:  parlat-il  d'amour,  de  poesie,  de  simple  regie  de 
conduite,  il  retombe,  volontairement  sans  doute,  dans  un  jargon  me'taphysi- 
que  presque  inintelligible.2 

Charles  Asselineau  says: 

Charles  Fontaine  doit  peu  compter  dans  1'histoire  de  la  poesie  franchise, 
tant  par  son  savoir  et  ses  idees  que  par  ses  oeuvres.  Ses  po6sies,  a  part  quel- 
ques  cris  eloquents  sur  la  mort  de  sa  sceur,  sur  la  naissance  de  son  fils,  etc.,  ne 
sortent  pas  d'une  mediocrite  correcte,  honorable  pour  un  homme  de  lettres, 
mais  insuflfisante  pour  un  poete.  .  .  .  On  retrouve  en  lui  les  qualites  que  j'ai 
deja  signalees  comme  propres  aux  auteurs  parisiens,  la  facilite,  le  gout,  1'eru- 
dition  sans  pedanterie.3 

Godefroy  was  conversant  with  Goujet: 

La  douceur,  la  reserve,  la  modestie  etaient  le  fond  de  son  caractere  .  .  . 
La  po6sie  etait  pour  Charles  Fontaine  une  distraction  a  laquelle,  sans  pre- 
tention,  il  consacrait  ses  loisirs.  .  .  .  Dans  les  divers  ouvrages  dont  nous 
avons  parle,  le  disciple  de  Clement  Marot  a  sou  vent  une  versification  aisee, 
un  tour  ingenieux,  de  la  finesse  dans  la  raillerie,  mais  jamais  d'elevation  ni  de 
chaleur.4 

Joseph  Desormaux,  a  most  judicious  critic,  says: 

Et  d'abord  est-ce  un  poete  ?  Charles  Fontaine  est  loin  d'en  avoir  le 
temp6rament,  car  chez  lui  le  souffle  poetique  est  bien  rare.  .  .  .  Comme 
traducteur,  car  on  traduisait  beaucoup  alors,  suivant  le  conseil  de  Sibilet,  il 
n'est  pas  non  plus  au-dessus  du  mediocre.  .  .  .  Depourvu  d'une  brillante 
imagination,  sans  verve  et  sans  coloris,  ce  poete  ne  manque  pas  de  bon  sens. 
II  a  compris,  lui  aussi,  qu'il  fallait  6crire  en  francais,  non  en  latin,  et  il  s'eleve 
avec  ardeur  centre  une  coutume  qui  devait  persister  longtemps  encore.5 

1  See  p.  101,  above. 

2  Catalogue  de  la  bibliotheque  de  Monsieur  Viollet-le-Duc,  Paris,  1843,  P*  2Q6- 
J  Cr£pet,  Les  Poetesfranqais,  1861,  vol.  i,  p.  649. 

4  Hist,  de  la  litt.  franq.  depuis  le  XVI'  siecle  jusqu'd  nos  jours,  ad  ed.,  1897, 
vol.  i,  p.  448. 

5  Revue  du  sitcle,  1889,  pp.  49~5O- 


228  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Birch-Hirschfeld: 

Sonst  ist  seine  Dichtung  eine  personliche  wie  die  Marot's  und  seiner 
Schule  .  .  .  Fontaine  ist  von  einem  innigen  Familiengefiihl  beseelt  .  .  . 
Seine  iibrigen  Poesien  [that  is,  besides  the  poems  on  the  death  of  Catherine 
and  the  birth  of  Jean]  zeichnet  nur  ein  leichter  Gedankenfluss  aus  und  eine 
klare,  natiirliche  Sprache;  Hervorbringungen  eines  originalen  Geistes  sind 
diese  "  Bache  der  Quelle  "  nicht  .  .  .  Eigentlicher  Hofdichter  ist  Fontaine 
nicht  geworden.1 

Morf: 

Aber  nicht  hofisch,  sondern  burgerlich  ist  seine  Muse.  Fehlt  ihr  die 
Eleganz,  so  besitzt  sie  doch  Tiefe  der  Empfindung  und  gesunde  Ehrbarkeit.2 

Tilley: 

Charles  Fontaine  is  known  by  a  single  poem,  the  beautiful  lines  on  the 
birth  of  his  son  Jean.3 

It  will  be  observed  that  virtually  all  these  critics  consider  only 
Fontaine  the  poet,  and  that  nearly  all  find  the  poet  mediocre  or 
worse.  Such  is  unquestionably  the  case.  Notwithstanding  his 
lofty  idea  of  his  mission,  his  unbounded  self-confidence,  and  his 
rather  amusing  vanity,  he  lacked  that  "  ardante  et  saincte 
phrenesie  "  about  which  he  liked  to  prate;  he  lacked  imagina- 
tion, wit,  spontaneity,  inventiveness,  and,  generally,  good  taste. 
He  was  especially  afflicted  with  what  some  one  has  aptly  styled 

1  Geschichte  derfranz.  Litt.,  1889,  vol.  i,  p.  147. 

2  Geschichte  der  neueren  franz.  Litt.,  1898,  vol.  i,  p.  53;  repeated  in  his  Geschichte 
der  franz.  Liter atur  im  Zeitalter  der  Renaissance,  zweite  .  .  .  Aufl.,  Strassburg, 
1914,  pp.  62-63. 

8  The  Literature  of  the  French  Renaissance,  1904,  vol.  i,  p.  85.  —  It  should  be  said 
that  the  opinions  of  some  of  the  critics  cited  above  are  of  no  value.  Their  articles  on 
Fontaine  show  either  that  they  got  their  information  at  second  hand  or  that  they 
invented  it.  For  instance,  Godefroy,  after  reproducing  some  of  Goujet's  statements, 
ventured  to  give  information  of  his  own.  Such  astonishing  declarations  as  the  fol- 
lowing were  the  result:  "  Charles  Fontaine  6tait  math6maticien,  philosophe,  ora- 
teur,  th6ologien,  jurisconsulte,  mfidecin,  astronome,  musicien."  Asselineau  was  not 
even  acquainted  with  the  titles  of  the  works  he  was  censuring.  In  his  hands  the 
Mimes  de  Publian  became  the  Manes  de  Publian,  the  Nouvettes  et  antiques  mereeilles 
became  the  Nouvelles  d'antiques  merveittes,  Symposius  was  transformed  into  Sese- 
lome,  and  the  Traite  des  douze  Cesars  was  metamorphosed  into  a  treatise  on  the 
Lacertilia  —  Trait6  de  douze  lezards! 


CONCLUSION  229 

"  a  deplorable  facility."  When  once  he  took  up  his  pen  and 
began  dashing  off  flat  and  pointless  "  episseries  "  —  insipid  puns, 
dull  messages  to  friends,  uninteresting  reminiscences,  silly  com- 
pliments, and  similar  inanities  —  he  did  not  know  when  to  stop; 1 
when  he  tried  to  rise  above  the  "  episseries  "  and  to  write  more 
lofty  poems,  the  result  was  often  ludicrous.  "  Simple  versifica- 
teur,"  rightly  says  Desormaux,  "il  oublie  trop  souvent  que  la 
poesie  ne  consiste  pas  a  aligner  des  rimes  a  la  fin  des  vers;  encore 
ses  rimes  sont-elles  loin  d'etre  toujours  riches."  2 

In  the  heap  of  Fontaine's  mediocre  verse  there  are  naturally  a 
few  good  poems.  As  M.  Chamard  and  others  have  remarked,  he 
was  at  his  best  in  his  elegies:  the  laments  on  the  death  of  Cath- 
erine and  Rene,  and  the  lighter  elegies  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour. 
The  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jean  has  won  the  praise  of  all 
critics.  An  epigram  here  and  there  is  tolerable.  These  are  prac- 
tically all  of  his  verses  in  which  we  find  qualities  that  satisfy  our 
modern  idea  of  poetic  excellence.  Like  many  another  writer  who 
has  had  sound  theories  on  poetry,  he  was  generally  prevented  by 
his  lack  of  creative  power  from  composing  good  poetry. 

Let  us  now  see  whether  we  cannot  find  in  Fontaine's  works 
something  that  will  serve  to  offset  his  mediocrity  as  a  poet. 

First  of  all,  his  extensive  relations  with  men  of  all  callings  and 
his  familiarity  with  the  most  important  literary  and  historical 
events  of  his  day  make  his  numerous  publications  an  abundant 
store  of  information.  The  literary  historian  cannot  afford  to 
overlook  the  pieces  that  Fontaine  inscribed  to  Clement  Marot, 
Lyon  Jamet,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  Maurice  Sceve,  Barthelemy 
Aneau,  Antoine  du  Moulin,  Gilbert  Ducher,  Denys  Sauvage, 
Pierre  Saliat,  Hugues  Salel,  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  fitienne  For- 
cadel,  Jean  de  Boyssonne,  Jacques  Gohorry,  Claude  Chappuys, 
Louis  Chesneau,  Jacques  Amyot,  Guillaume  Aubert,  Michel  de 
1'Hospital,  Pierre  Danes,  Lancelot  de  Carles,  Marguerite  de 

1  See,  for  instance,  Estreines  d  certains  seigneurs  et  dames  de  Lyon  and  Odes, 
enigmes,  et  epigrammes. 

2  Revue  du  siecle,  vol.  iii,  p.  46. 


230  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Navarre,  Jean  des  Gouttes,  fitienne  Pasquier,  Ronsard,  Du 
Bellay,  Dorat,  Jodelle,  Magny,  Tyard,  Belleau,  Ba'if,  and  scores 
of  others.1  Nor  can  the  historian  proper  afford  to  neglect  the 
Ode  de  I'antiquite  et  excellence  de  la  mile  de  Lyon,  the  Salutation  au 
Roy  Charles  IX,  the  adieux  and  the  Dieu  gard  to  Lyons  and  Paris, 
the  countless  "episseries"  addressed  to  doctors,  lawyers,  prel- 
ates, printers,  municipal  officers,  king's  officers,  ambassadors, 
painters,  and  musicians.  It  matters  little  whether  or  not  Fon- 
taine was  acquainted  with  all  the  persons  to  whom  he  dedicated 
verses;  he  was  a  contemporary,  and  knew  important  facts  re- 
lating to  those  persons  —  facts  which  are  to  be  found  only  in 
his  works,  and  which  help  to  compose  the  history  of  one  of  the 
most  important  and  most  complicated  epochs  in  the  history  of 
France.2 

A  good  deal  of  information  is  also  to  be  derived  from  the  pref- 
aces and  dedicatory  epistles  that  Fontaine  inserted  in  nearly 
every  volume  he  published;  for  example,  the  liminary  pieces  of 
the  two  epitomes  of  Artemidorus's  dream  book  contain  curious 
ideas  on  a  common  superstition;  the  dedicatory  epistle  of  the 
Nouvelles  et  antiques  merveilles  sets  forth  the  views  of  a  cultivated 
man  on  the  then  recently  discovered  New  World;  the  dedication 
of  the  translation  of  the  first  book  of  Saint  Augustine's  De  Prae- 
destinatione  Sanctorum  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  Christian  beliefs 
that  enabled  Fontaine  to  withstand  the  buffets  of  an  unhappy 
life;  the  preface  to  the  Fontaine  d' amour  shows  the  paganizing 
influence  of  the  Renaissance  on  a  Frenchman  of  intelligence;  the 
notices  in  the  translation  of  the  Heroides  make  known  the  author's 

1  For  details  of  the  literary  history  of  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  no 
contemporary  writer  is  quoted  more  often  than  Fontaine. 

2  M.  Buisson  (Sebastien  Castellion,  vol.  i,  p.  29)  says  concerning  the  Epigrammata 
of  Ducher  and  other  Latin  poets:    "  N'eut  6t6  l'ing£nue  vanit6  de  ces  premiers 
amants  de  la  Renaissance  francaise,  rien  de  tout  cela  n'aurait  surve'cu,  meritant  si 
peu  de  survivre.    Pourtant,  avec  un  peu  de  patience,  on  tirerait  de  ces  quelques 
volumes  un  tableau  presque  complet  de  la  soci6t6  cultiv6e  de  Lyon."    The  same 
may  be  said  of  Fontaine's  epigrams.  —  Considered  from  the  right  point  of  view, 
not  merely  that  of  literary  worth,  the  Ruisseaux  de  Fontaine  is  as  interesting  as  any 
other  collection  of  verse  published  in  France  during  the  century. 


CONCLUSION  231 

theories  on  translating;  and  even  the  preface  to  Fontaine's  most 
worthless  production,  the  Figures  du  Nouveau  Testament,  contains 
his  ideas  on  a  question  then  of  great  moment  —  the  question  of 
orthography.  Not  only  do  these  epistles  and  prefaces  contain 
interesting  details  relating  to  Fontaine  and  his  time,  but  they 
furnish  the  best  example  of  his  prose.  No  critic,  except  Colletet, 
has  ever  considered  Maitre  Charles  for  anything  but  his  poetry, 
and  such  treatment  is  unjust.  Let  the  reader  turn  back  to  the 
extracts  quoted  from  the  prefaces  mentioned  above,  and  I  am 
sure  that  he  will  agree  with  the  author  of  the  Vies  des  poetesfran- 
qois  that  the  language  in  which  they  are  couched  is  "  strong  and 
reasonable/'  and  "  more  polished  than  Fontaine's  time  seemed  to 
permit." 

It  has  been  customary  so  long  to  class  Fontaine  as  a  member  of 
the  school  of  Marot,  and  nothing  more,  that  I  may  seem  some- 
what rash  when  I  express  the  opinion  that  this  classification  must 
be  changed.  In  many  respects  Fontaine  was  indeed  a  member  of 
Marot's  school;  in  other  respects  he  so  differed  from  the  old 
school  that  only  one  conclusion  is  possible:  he  must  be  ranked  as 
a  transitional  poet  between  the  school  of  Marot  and  the  Pleiade. 
To  those  who  have  become  used  to  thinking  of  him  as  the  disciple, 
the  friend,  and  the  defender  of  Marot,  as  the  crony  of  the  poets  of 
the  Passetemps  des  amis,  and  as  the  author  of  empty  epigrams, 
enigmas,  translations,  "  familiar  and  domestic  "  epistles,  estreines, 
Dieu  gard,  adieux,  and  chants,  it  may  seem  too  hazardous  to  apply 
the  overworked  word  "  precursor  "  to  him.  The  fact  also  that  he 
engaged  in  several  of  the  controversies  so  dear  to  the  "  Marot- 
teaux  "  —  the  dispute  between  Marot  and  Sagon,  the  discussion 
with  Papillon  on  the  Victoire  et  triumphe  d' Argent,  and  the 
"  querelle  des  amies  "  *  —  has  led  critics  to  regard  him  as  an  oppo- 
nent of  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay,  and  their  followers,  especially  so  as 
he  was  long  held  to  be  the  author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian  and  the 
target  for  the  Poete  courtisan,  the  Nouvelle  maniere  de  faire  son 

1  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  poems  connected  with  these  controversies 
were  the  only  works  by  Fontaine  that  were  published  before  Marot's  death  (1544). 


232  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

profit  des  Lettres,  and  a  slur  or  two  in  the  Defence.  However,  that 
he,  like  several  other  members  of  the  Lyonese  school,  was  not  a 
"  pure  disciple  "  of  Marot l  will,  I  think,  be  made  clear  by  the 
reasons  set  forth  below. 

But  before  considering  Fontaine's  claims,  let  us  see  who  are  the 
accepted  precursors  of  the  Pleiade,  and  why  they  have  been 
accepted.2 

First  of  all,  Maurice  Sceve,  the  chief  of  the  Lyonese  school, 
because  he  was  learned;  because  he  sought  to  elevate  the  tone 
of  French  literature  by  dangling  the  449  dizains  of  his  Delie  far 
above  the  heads  of  the  common  herd;  because  Delie  shows  the 
effect  of  strong  Italian  influence;  because  his  series  of  dizains 
was  "  the  forerunner  of  those  sonnet-sequences  addressed  to  real 
or  imaginary  mistresses  which,  beginning  with  Du  Bellay's  Olive, 
were  produced  in  such  numbers  in  France  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century  "  (Tilley);  because  he  at  times  had  the 
"  ability  to  express  a  serious  poetical  idea  in  stately  verse " 
(Tilley);  because  "he  worshipped  new  words,  uncommon 
epithets,  and,  seeking  to  fix  delicate  shades  of  meaning,  called  to 
his  aid  strange  figures  borrowed  from  metaphysics,  astrology,  and 
astronomy  "  (Bourciez);  and  because  with  him  a  "  feeling  for  art 
came  into  French  poetry  "  (Brunetiere).3 

Antoine  Heroet,  a  learned  man,  who,  in  the  Parfaicte  Amye,  set 
forth  the  Neo-Platonic  philosophy  of  love;  who,  with  Sceve, 

1  Cf.  Bourciez,  in  Petit  de  Julleville's  Hist,  de  la  langue  et  de  la  litt.  franc,.,  vol.  iii, 
p.  131:  "  Louise  Lab6,  non  plus  que  les  autres  poetes  de  Lyon,  ne  doit  done  point 
etre  ranged  parmi  les  purs  disciples  de  Marot." 

1  I  give  the  opinions  of  the  following  critics:  Bourciez,  Les  M&urs  polies  et  la 
litter ature  de  cour  sous  Henri  II,  ch.  IV,  and  Petit  de  Julleville,  vol.  iii,  pp.  129,  130; 
Brunetiere,  Etudes  critiques  sur  I'hist.  de  la  litt.  franf.,  6e  s£rie,  1889,  pp.  79-95: 
Un  precurseur  de  la  Pleiade,  Maurice  Scene;  Tilley,  The  Literature  of  the  French 
Renaissance,  vol.  i,  pp.  136  ff.;  Vianey,  L 'Influence  italienne  chez  les  precurseur s 
de  la  Pleiade,  in  the  Bulletin  italien,  vol.  iii,  pp.  85  ff.;  C.  Ruutz-Rees,  Charles  de 
Sainte-Marthe,  pp.  222  ff. 

s  For  the  view  that  Sceve  was  "  un  iso!6,  et  a  certains  6gards  un  attard€,  dans  sa 
cit6  lyonnaise,"  and  that  he  had  no  influence  on  the  members  of  the  Pleiade,  Tyard 
excepted,  see  P.  Laumonier,  in  the  (Euvres  poeliques  de  Jacques  Peletier  du  Mans, 
Se'che'  edition,  Paris,  1904,  pp.  147-148. 


CONCLUSION  233 

waged  war  on  ignorance;  and  whose  verse,  although  prosaic,  is 
unaffected  and  unpedantic. 

Jacques  Peletier,  a  learned  man,  whose  translation  of  Horace's 
Ars  Poetica  (1544)  contains  a  dedication  in  which  are  advanced 
many  of  the  ideas  that  appeared  later  in  the  Defence]  who  wrote 
fifteen  sonnets,  twelve  of  which  were  translated  from  Petrarch; 
who  described  the  beauties  of  nature  in  a  truly  poetic  manner; 
and  who  experimented  in  verse  forms. 

Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  a  learned  man,  who,  after  Marot,  was 
the  best  craftsman  of  the  time;  who  may  have  introduced  the 
sonnet  into  France;  and  who  introduced  the  imitation  of  Italian 
models  into  French  literature. 

To  these  four  poets  may  be  added  Jean  Lemaire  de  Beiges, 
because  he  introduced  the  terza  rima  into  France;  Clement 
Marot,  because  he  wrote  twelve  sonnets,  six  of  which  were  trans- 
lated from  Petrarch;  Marguerite  de  Navarre,  on  account  of  her 
Platonism;  Charles  de  Sainte-Marthe,  because  of  his  learning, 
his  Petrarchism,  and  his  Platonism;  and,  finally,  Hugues  Salel, 
because  of  his  imitation  of  Italian  models.1 

Charles  Fontaine  must  be  placed  among  these  forerunners  of 
the  Pleiade  on  account  of  (i)  his  learning,  (2)  his  imitation  of 
Italian  models  before  1549,  (3)  his  Platonism,  (4)  the  fact  that 
he  anticipated  some  of  the  ideas  of  the  Pleiade,  and  before  1549 
employed  some  of  the  poetic  forms  recommended  by  Du  Bellay 
in  the  Defence. 

(i)  That  Fontaine  was  a  learned  man  is  shown  by  considerable 
evidence.2  After  securing  his  master's  degree  at  the  College  du 
Plessis,  he  studied  under  the  newly  appointed  lecteur  royal  Pierre 
Danes,  one  of  the  foremost  humanists  of  the  day.  A  few  years 

1  Jacques  Tahureau  and  Louise  Lab€  are  sometimes  ranked  among  the  precur- 
sors of  the  Pleiade.    M.  Chamard  (Joachim  du  Bellay,  p.  354,  note  14)  has  shown 
that  nearly  all  of  Tahureau's  poetry  was  written  after  1550.     Concerning  Louise 
Lab6,  Mr.  Tilley  says  (vol.  ii,  p.  19) :  "  Her  poems  did  not  appear  till  the  year  1555, 
and  her  use  of  the  sonnet-form  shews  that  they  must  almost  certainly  have  been 
written  after  1549." 

2  I  make  no  attempt  to  distinguish  between  Fontaine's  learning  before  1549  and 
after. 


234  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

later  he  supplemented  his  book  learning  by  a  journey  to  Italy, 
during  which  he  visited  Turin,  Pavia,  Cremona,  Mantua,  Venice, 
Ferrara,  Vercelli,  and  Milan.  After  a  sojourn  of  probably  a  year 
in  Italy,  he  returned  to  France,  and  devoted  himself  to  a  literary 
life  and  to  the  printing  and  publishing  trade.  His  works  show 
that  he  had  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  classics;  he  imitated,  trans- 
lated, quoted,  borrowed  from,  or  mentioned  Alcaeus,  Anacreon, 
Aristotle,  Artemidorus,  Crates,  Diodorus  Siculus,  Euripides, 
Galen,  Heliodorus,  Herodotus,  Hippocrates,  Homer,  Lycurgus, 
Musaeus,  Pindar,  Plato,  Plutarch,  Ptolemy,  The  Seven  Wise 
Men  of  Greece,  Simonides,  Socrates,  Solon,  Stesichorus,  Strabo, 
Synesius,  Saint  Augustine,  Ausonius,  Boethius,  Cato,  Catullus, 
Cicero,  Hadrian,  Horace,  Juvenal,  Martial,  Ovid,  Publilius 
Syrus,  Seneca,  Suetonius,  Symposius  (or  Lactantius),  Terence, 
Valerius  Maximus,  and  Virgil.1  His  works  also  show  that  he  was 
well  versed  in  mythology  and  ancient  history.  His  interest  in 
antiquity  led  him  to  choose  Bude's  De  Asse  as  a  suitable  work  for 
vulgarization;  his  interest  in  the  New  World  led  him  to  publish 
an  epitome  dealing  with  the  voyages  of  Columbus;  his  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  Lyons  enabled  him  to  write  an  ode  which  must 
be  considered  in  compiling  a  complete  history  of  that  city;  his 
competence,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  written  his  ode  on  the 
antiquity  and  excellence  of  Lyons,  probably  caused  the  Lyonese 
to  select  him  to  pen  the  official  Salutation  au  Roy  Charles  IX. 
The  fact  that  he  was  a  corrector  and  an  editor  in  the  employ 
of  the  printers  and  publishers  Thibaud  Payen,  Sebastien  Gryphe, 
Pierre  de  Tours,  Guillaume  Roville,  and  Jean  de  Tournes,  while 
not  conclusive  proof  of  his  learning,  must  be  mentioned  in  the 
cumulative  evidence.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  chosen 
by  Guillaume  Roville  to  translate  the  encyclopaedic  Promptua- 
rium  from  Lathi  into  French  for  the  very  reason  that  the  task 
required  a  man  of  learning.  A  final  proof  of  his  erudition  is  that 

1  See  also  Bibliography,  A,  no.  17,  Les  Diets  des  sept  Sages,  for  a  list  of  Greek  and 
Roman  writers,  from  whose  works  Fontaine  made  a  collection  of  precepts,  "  par 
tongue  lecture." 


CONCLUSION  235 

in  1555  he  was  elected  temporary  principal  of  the  College  de  la 
Trinite,  a  position  in  which  he  had  as  a  predecessor  and  as  a  suc- 
cessor Barthelemy  Aneau,  one  of  the  lights  of  French  humanism. 

(2)  It  was  probably  during  Fontaine's  stay  in  Italy  that  he 
became  acquainted  with  the  Italian  writers  under  whose  influence 
he  came  later:  Castiglione,  Sannazaro,  and  perhaps  Petrarch, 
Cariteo,  Tebaldeo,  Serafino,  and  others.     The  works  in  which 
an  Italian  influence  is  found  are:  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  (bor- 
rowings from  Castiglione's  Cortegiano) ;  £pitre,  philosophant  sur 
la  bonne  amour  (a  page  from  the  Cortegiano,  with  Fontaine's 
comments  and  amplifications) ;  the  Fontaine  d' amour  (references 
to  the  Italian  journey,  four  epigrams  from  Sannazaro,  Petrar- 
chistic  style  and  concetti  in  some  of  the  elegies  and  epistles) ; 1  the 
Eclogue  marine    (in  imitation  of  Sannazaro's  piscatory  eclogues, 
perhaps,  though  not  necessarily,  through  the  medium  of  Hugues 
Salel).    Besides  these  borrowings  from  or  imitations  of  Italian 
authors,  Fontaine  translated  Suetonius's  Vitae  Caesarum  from 
Italian  into  French;   and,  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  I  shall 
add  that  he  spoke  in  high  terms  of  Leon  Battista  Alberti's  Dei- 
pkira.    It  should  be  remembered  that,  although  his  indebtedness 
to  Italy  is  unmistakable,  he  did  not,  as  Edouard  Fournier  pre- 
tended, so  admire  the  Italians  that  "  he  scorned  the  French 
Minerva." 

(3)  Fontaine's  Platonism  appears  in  the  Contr'amye  de  Court, 
an  exposition  of  "  honneste  amour  "  interspersed  with  borrowings 
from  the  Symposium  and  the  Phaedrus,  and  in  the  Epitre,  philoso- 
phant sur  la  bonne  amour,  derived  from  the  Cortegiano,  to  which  it 
owes  its  Neo-Platonic  ideas.    These  two  poems  give  Fontaine  the 
right  to  take  his  stand  beside  Antoine  Heroet  as  a  forerunner  of 
the  Pleiade,  since  Heroet's  Platonism  alone  entitles  him  to  rank 
with  Sceve  and  Peletier.2     The  Contr'amye  de  Court  and  the 

1  M.  Laumonier  (Ronsard  poete  lyrique,  p.  20,  note  i)  thinks  that  the  Fontaine 
d'amour  suffices  to  make  Fontaine  "  un  pr€curseur  de  la  P16iade." 

1  H6roet's  learning  and  his  waging  war  on  ignorance,  his  other  claims  to  fame, 
are,  of  course,  connected  with  his  Platonism.  As  a  poet,  he  was  not  superior  to 
Fontaine.  As  a  man  of  taste,  he  was,  however,  the  latter's  superior. 


236  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

£pttre  contain  every  essential  idea  of  Heioet's  Parfaicte  Amye 
except  one,  and,  as  I  have  said  already,  only  a  portion  of  this 
conception  is  to  be  found  in  Plato.1  Fontaine's  importance  in  the 
"  querelle  des  amies  "  as  the  first  poet  to  take  issue  with  the  Amie 
de  Court,  and  as  the  standard-bearer  around  whom  the  defenders 
of  "  honneste  "  and  Platonic  love  rallied,  cannot  be  denied.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  feeble  effort 
or  two  —  such  as  a  few  minor  poems  in  Charles  de  Sainte- 
Marthe's  Poesie  franqoise  —  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  the  first 
important  original  work  in  French  that  showed  a  distinct  Platonic 
influence. 

(4)  Finally,  Fontaine  entertained  many  of  the  ideas  of  the 
P16iade  before  1549.  He  believed  in  the  lofty  mission  and  the 
divine  inspiration  of  the  poet,  and  he  believed  that  the  poet 
should  labor  hard  and  long  over  his  verses.  He  often  talked  about 
being  a  poet  by  nature,  but  most  of  his  works  show  (that  is,  most 
of  his  works  published  before  the  Defence)  that,  like  Du  Bellay, 
he  thought  culture  necessary,  and  that,  like  Du  Bellay,  culture  to 
him  meant  the  study  of  the  classics  and  the  modern  Italians.  In 
his  imitation  of  classic  and  Italian  models,  he  anticipated  Du 
Bellay's  recommendation  that  they  be  devoured,  digested,  and 
assimilated,  not  imitated  servilely;  as,  for  instance,  in  thefilegie 
sur  le  trespas  de  Catherine  Fontaine  and  the  elegies  and  epistles 
and  some  of  the  epigrams  of  the  Fontaine  d1  amour. 

In  his  criticism  of  the  French  language  and  literature  as  com- 
pared with  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Italian  languages  and  litera- 
tures, and  in  his  defense  of  the  French  language  and  literature, 
Fontaine  also  anticipated  Du  Bellay.  Before  1549  he  reproached 
"  quelques  gens  eshontez  "  and  "  quelques  Latins  "  for  scorning 
French  poetry  and  for  preferring  Greek,  Latin,  and  Italian  poetry 
to  French.  After  1549  he  repeated  several  times  that,  although 
he  could  write  in  Latin  "  plus  amplement  et  doctement,"  he  wrote 
in  French  because  he  wished  to  honor  his  own  language  as  the 
Latins  did  theirs.  In  connection  with  his  defense  of  the  French 

1  Cf.  p.  112,  note  4,  above. 


CONCLUSION  237 

language,  he  defended  rime  in  French  poetry,  another  point  in 
which  he  anticipated  the  Defence. 

Of  the  forms  of  poetry  recommended  by  Du  Bellay,  we  have 
seen  that  before  1549  Fontaine  wrote  epigrams  in  imitation  of 
Martial,  elegies  and  epistles  in  imitation  of  Ovid,  and  probably  a 
marine  eclogue  in  imitation  of  Sannazaro;  and  that  after  1549 
he  tried  to  follow  Du  Bellay's  advice  by  composing  odes. 

Fontaine  expressed  admiration  for  the  Pleiade  because  he  saw 
that  they  were  in  the  main  good  poets  with  some  good  ideas.  In 
only  one  particular  —  concerning  translations  —  did  he  show 
dissatisfaction  with  the  teachings  of  the  new  school,  and  in  that 
particular  he  was  in  the  right.  He  addressed  friendly  verses  to 
the  members  of  the  Pleiade,  who  scorned  him  —  the  reputed 
author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Pleiade  had  virtually  no  effect 
upon  Fontaine.  Before  1549  he  published  his  poems  in  defense  of 
Marot,  the  Response  to  Papillon's  Victoire  et  triumphe  d' Argent, 
the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  the  Fontaine  d'amour,  one  translation 
(Epitome  des  trois  premiers  livres  de  Artemidorus) ,  and  one  volume 
of  "episseries"  (Estreines  a  certains  seigneurs  et  dames  de  Lyon); 
and  before  1549  he  composed  important  poems  that  were  pub- 
lished after  1549:  Epitre,  philosophant  sur  la  bonne  amour,  the 
Eclogue  marine  (probably),  the  elegies  on  the  death  of  Catherine 
and  Rene,  and  the  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jean.  After  1549  he 
published  a  dozen  translations  (with  his  theories  on  translation), 
three  volumes  of  "episseries,"  the  Figures  du  Nowveau  Testament, 
and  the  Salutation  au  Roy  Charles  IX.  In  short,  although  Fon- 
taine must  be  regarded  as  a  precursor  of  the  Pleiade,  the  Pleiade 
had  no  influence  on  him,  except  that  it  suggested  to  him  the  use  of 
the  ode  and  of  a  few  metrical  structures.  Strangely  enough,  his 
ideas  and  his  works  before  1549  were  more  original  and  more  like 
those  of  the  Pleiade  than  were  his  ideas  and  his  works  after  1549. 
After  1549  he  became  a  "pure  disciple"  of  Clement  Marot 
(except  in  his  odes);  before  1549  he  was  a  disciple  of  Marot 
and  a  forerunner  of  the  Pleiade. 


238  MAISTRE  CHARLES  FONTAINE,  PARISIEN 

Had  Fontaine  never  lived,  the  French  language  and  literature 
would  have  followed  essentially  the  course  they  did  follow,  since 
circumstances  over  which  no  one  man  had  any  control  were 
shaping  that  course.  But  Fontaine  lived  and  worked  conscien- 
tiously for  the  betterment  of  the  French  language  and  literature, 
and  he  must  be  reckoned  with  as  one  who,  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  helped  to  fashion  the  language  and  the  literature  of  his 
century.  Endowed  with  an  alert,  inquisitive  mind,  he  was  above 
all  a  kind  of  receptacle  for  many  of  the  most  important  ideas  of 
the  Renaissance,  some  of  which  he  was  among  the  first  of  his  con- 
temporaries to  adopt.  In  the  wide  range  of  subjects  with  which  he 
dealt,  in  his  eagerness  to  acquire  and  to  dispense  knowledge,  in 
his  restlessness  and  his  untiring  activity  he  is  a  typical  man  of  the 
French  Renaissance,  or,  to  use  the  words  of  M.  fimile  Roy,  "  si  le 
poete  est  mediocre,  I'homme  est  un  curieux  temoin  de  son  temps, 
et  le  nombre  meme  et  la  variete  de  ses  relations  font  de  lui  une 
sorte  de  bibliotheque  vivante  du  XVI8  siecle."  * 

1  Charles  Fontaine  et  ses  amis,  in  the  Reoue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1897,  p.  419. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  fitienne  Dolet  (Doleti  poemata,  Lyons,  1538,  p.  62)  said 
that  the  great  humanist  Jacques  Toussain  was  "  deservedly  entitled  the  living 
library." 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

IN  treating  the  family  of  Charles  Fontaine,  I  had  occasion  to  speak 
briefly  of  Jean,  at  whose  birth  was  written  the  Chant  sur  la  naissance 
de  Jean,  second  filz  de  I'auteur,1  which  is  generally  regarded  as  Maitre 
Charles's  nearest  approach  to  real  poetry.  In  another  piece  Fontaine 
gave  Jean  the  following  advice: 

Sers  bien  Dieu,  li  bien,  escri  bien, 
Honore  pere,  mere,  et  maistre: 
En  ce  faisant  tu  pourras  estre 
Un  jour  en  honneur  et  en  bien.2 

Since  Jean  tried  to  carry  out  his  father's  wishes  in  so  far  as  writing  well 
was  concerned,  it  will  be  worth  while  to  collect  the  few  scattered  facts 
relating  to  him  and  to  examine  the  single  work  that  he  wrote,  or  at 
least  the  only  one  that  has  come  down  to  us. 

Two  allusions  in  the  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jean  show  that  he  was 
born  during  the  closing  years  of  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  Fontaine 
addressed  his  son  thus: 

Vien  voir  la  paix  en  France  descendue: 

Vien  voir  Francois,  nostre  Roy  et  le  tien  .  .  . 

Vien  voir  ton  pere  en  proces  et  en  peine. 

The  peace  referred  to  was  probably  that  of  Crepy,  made  between 
Francis  I  and  Charles  V  in  September,  1544.  Concerning  Fontaine's 
lawsuit  many  details  have  already  been  given.  Maitre  Charles  set  out 
for  Paris  in  1 547  to  lay  his  case  before  Parliament.3  The  suit  had  been 
previously  decided  in  the  poet's  favor  at  Lyons,  and  if  we  take  into 
consideration  the  law's  delay  in  the  sixteenth  century,  we  are  safe  in 
assuming  that  the  suit  began  in  Lyons  as  early  as  1545  or  I546.4 

1  Cf.  p.  122,  above.       2  Les  Ruisseaux,  p.  187.       3  Cf.  p.  130,  note  2,  above. 
4  Elsewhere  in  the  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jean,  Fontaine  says: 

vien  voir  ton  pere  aussi, 
Qui  a  passe  sa  jeunesse  soudaine, 
Et  a  trente  ans  est  en  peine  et  souci. 

"  Trente  ans  "  can  be  only  an  approximation,  since  Fontaine  (born  in  1514)  married 
Flora,  Jean's  mother,  in  February,  1544,  and  Jean  was  not  their  first  child. 

241 


242  APPENDIX 

Concerning  Jean's  early  years  nothing  is  known.  Maltre  Charles 
composed  several  poems  in  his  honor,  but  they  are  filled  with  the 
merest  commonplaces. 

The  nature  of  the  work  that  we  have  from  Jean's  pen  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  he  was  a  teacher.  This  work,  the  first  edition  of  which, 
according  to  Du  Verdier,1  appeared  at  Lyons  hi  1562,  bears  the  follow- 
ing title:  Hortulus  puerorum  per  grains  ac  perutilis,  Latine  discentibus 
...  It  is  quite  like  modern  conversation  books.  The  titles  of  a  few 
of  the  chapters  will  show  the  kind  of  topics  treated:  De  partibus  cor- 
poris  humani  exterioribus;  De  interioribus;  De  re  vestiaria;  De  re 
utensili;  De  mensa  cibaria;  De  arboribus;  De  piscibus;  De  fructibus; 
De  coloribus;  De  avibus,  etc.  Under  these  headings  the  author  placed 
a  considerable  number  of  Lathi  words,  followed  by  definitions  in 
Latin.  Of  this  Lathi  word-book  he  made  a  French-Latin  version,  that 
is,  the  words  are  given  in  French,  defined  in  Latin,  and  commented  on 
in  French. 

The  volume  was  dedicated  to  Jean  Gravier,  secretary  of  the  city  of 
Lyons,  to  whom  Charles  Fontaine  inscribed  numerous  poems  and 
epistles.  After  praising  Gravier's  virtue  and  intelligence,  Jean  informs 
him  that  the  Hortulus  was  prepared  especially  for  the  benefit  of 
Gravier's  son  An  tome.  Among  his  comments  on  his  book,  Jean  says: 
"  In  qua  cognitionis  farragine,  et  si  nonnulla  Graeco  fonte  detorta 
insevimus,  ubique  tamen  patris  mei  Caroli  Fontani  judicium  adhibere 
visum  est." 

The  Hortulus  contains  several  Latin  poems  by  Jean,  the  titles  of 
which  are  given  below. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Hortulus  and  the  poems  addressed  to  him 
by  his  father,  information  concerning  Jean  is  totally  lacking.  It  may 
be  conjectured,  however,  that  he  lived  and  died  in  his  native  city, 
Lyons,  since  all  the  early  editions  of  the  Hortulus  were  published 
there. 

A  description  of  the  earliest  edition  of  the  Hortulus  that  I  have  been 
able  to  find  is  as  follows: 

HORTVLVS  ||  PVERORVM  PER-  ||  gratus  ac  perutilis,  Latine  ||  discen 
tibus.  ||  Summa  capita  pagellae  septima  &  seq.  indicant.  ||  Adiecimus 
duos  in  calce  Dialogos  cum  \\  quorumdam  ludorum  explicatione.  \\  PETIT 
IARDIN,  ||  Pour  les  Enfans  fort  agreable  &  profi- 1|  table  pour  aprendre 

1  Vol.  ii,  p.  415.    The  date  assigned  by  Du  Verdier  is  questionable. 


APPENDIX  243 

Latin.  ||  Le  Sommaire  du  LiUret  est  de- 1|  claire  a  la  vij  page.  |[  [Mark.] 
||  PARISIIS,  ||  Apud  Hubertum  Hunot,  e  regione  Col-  ||  legij  Rhemen- 
sis,  ad  Pocula  Passerum.  ||  1600. 

8vo.  Two  parts  in  one  volume.  First  part,  4  ff.  unnumbered,  62  ff.  numbered. 
Second  part,  96  pp.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  X.  8857. 

First  part: 

Reverse  of  title  blank.  F.  aij  r°,  dedication,  loannes  Fontanus  D.  loanni  Gra- 
vario  d  Secretis  domus  publi.  Lugd.  S.  D.  F.  aij  v°,  Latin  poem,  loannes  Fontanus 
ad  Atonium  [sic]  Gravarium  probae  indolis  puerum.  F.  aiij  v°,  Index,  vel  summa 
libelli.  F.  aiiij  r°,  Sommaire  du  lime.  F.  i  r°,  Hortulus.  ...  F.  59  v°,  Latin  poem, 
Ad  lacobum  Pagium.  F.  60  r°,  Latin  poem,  Ad  Andraeam  Laurentium  puerum 
virtutis,  Uterarumque  studiosum.  F.  61  r°,  Latin  poem,  Ad  lulium  Spinam.  F.  62  r°, 
Epitaphium  de  obitu  lulii  Spinae  anno  1558,  mense  Martio.  F.  62  v°,  Epitaphium 
de  Carolo  Fontano  filio. 

Second  part: 

PETIT  IARDIN  1 1  POVR  LES  ENFANS,  1 1  FORT  AGREABLE  ET  1 1  profitable 
pour  appren-  ||  dre  Latin:  ||  Distingue  par  Chapitres,  &°  selon  Vordre  \\ 
Alphabetique,  commenqeant  par  les  vocables  Francois.  \\  Par  ||  IEAN 
FONTAINE.  ||  A  PARIS,  ||  Chez  Hubert  Hunot,  pres  le  College  ||  de 
Reims,  a  1'enseigne  du  Pot  ||  a  moineaux.  ||  M.D.CV  [1605]. 

The  second  part  is  taken  up  entirely  by  the  Petit  Jardin. 

Editions  I  have  seen  or  have  seen  noticed:  Lyons,  Loys  et  Charles  Pesnot,  1562 
and  1571;  Lyons,  Jean  Lertout,  1581  and  1584;  Lyons,  Charles  Pesnot,  1581; 
Lyons,  haeredes  Benedicti  Rigaud,  1598;  Paris,  Hubert  Hunot,  1600,  1605,  and 
1606;  Paris,  P.-L.  Febvrier,  1605  and  1606;  Rouen,  Jean  Petit,  1612;  Reims, 
Nicole  Constant,  1626;  Rouen,  J.  de  Manneville,  1668. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  DETAILED  bibliography  of  the  works  of  Charles  Fontaine  has  never 
been  attempted  before.  In  a  reprint  of  Fontaine's  Ode  de  Vantiquite  el 
excellence  de  la  vttle  de  Lyon  (Lyons,  1889),  Leon  Galle  published  a 
bibliography  which  is  merely  a  brief  list  of  the  volumes  with  which  the 
bibliographer  was  acquainted.  The  value  of  this  list  is  unpaired  by 
numerous  omissions  and  inaccuracies.  For  instance,  Galle  attributes 
to  Fontaine  Les  Diets  et  sentences  dorez  des  tres  illustres  sept  Sages  de 
Grece.  Traduicts  de  grec  en  vers  latins  par  le  po'ete  Ausone,  et  de  luy  en 
rithme  franqoyse,  Lyons,  Benoit  Rigaud,  1586.  On  folio  A2  of  this 
volume  there  is  an  Epistre  au  roy  par  Franqois  Habert,  the  rightful 
author.  Galle  also  ascribes  to  Charles  Fontaine  the  pieces  composed 
by  Calvy  de  la  Fontaine  during  the  controversy  between  Marot  and 
Sagon ;  also  the  Quintil  Horatian.  Furthermore,  Galle  does  not  take 
the  reader  beyond  the  title-page  or  the  dedication  of  the  works  enu- 
merated, and  so  his  bibliography  is  of  no  value  to  those  who  wish  to 
secure  information  concerning  the  men  and  women  of  the  Renaissance. 
In  the  present  bibliography  I  have  endeavored  to  give  a  complete 
description  of  all  of  Fontaine's  works  and  to  reproduce  the  name  of 
every  contemporary  that  figures  in  them.  I  have  deemed  it  unneces- 
sary to  increase  the  tediousness  of  my  task  by  pointing  out  the  errors 
of  Galle,  Brunet,  Graesse,  and  other  bibliographers.  Nor  have  I 
thought  it  worth  while  to  quote  the  present  or  past  market  values  of 
Fontaine's  works.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  all  are  rare  and  costly,  and 
that  the  prices  vary  according  to  circumstances. 

A.    PRINCIPAL  WORKS  OF  CHARLES  FONTAINE 

1537 

i.  Les  disciples  &  ||  AMYS  DE  MAROT  CONTRE  ||  SAGON,  LA  HVETERIE, 
ET  ||  Leurs  adherentz.  ||  On  les  vend  a  Paris  en  la  Rue  sainct 
lac-  ||  ques,  pres  sainct  Benoist,  a  lenseigne  du  ||  Croissant,  en  la 
boutique  de  leha  Morin.  ||  M.D.xxxvn. 

8vo.    36  ff.  unnumbered.    Signatures  A-I  fours.     Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  Ye. 
1582;  Bibl.  de  Versailles,  E  3520,  is  piece. 

244 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  245 

Title,  woodcut  representing  three  men  writing  at  three  tables,  their  feet 
resting  on  three  animals — calf,  donkey,  and  monkey  (reproduced  by  E.  Picot, 
Cat.  Rothschild,  vol.  i,  p.  436,  and  vol.  iii,  p.  413). 

In  this  volume  are  the  following  pieces  by  Charles  Fontaine:  F.  17  v°, 
Latin  epigram,  In  eundem  Saguntinum.  C.  Fontaines  [sic].  F.  18  r°,  Epistre  a 
Sagon  et  a  la  Hueterie  par  C.  Fontaines.  Dixain  conforme  aux  vers  precedens  par 
Charles  Fontaines.  Also  In  eum  qui  scripsit  in  Marotum,  probably  by  Fontaine. 

The  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot  also  contains  pieces  by  the  following  authors: 
Janus  Parrhasius,  poeta  Senogalliensis;  Maistre  Nicole  Glotelet,  de  Victry  en 
Partoys;  Bonadventure  [des  Periers],  valet  de  chambre  de  la  Royne  de  Na- 
varre; Christophe  Richer;  Cfalvy]  de  la  Fontaine;  several  anonymous  writers. 

At  least  two  other  editions  of  the  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot  are  known: 
Lyons,  Pierre  de  Saincte-Lucie,  dit  le  Prince,  without  date  (Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve 
Ye.  1579);  Paris,  pres  le  college  de  Reims,  a  lenseigne  du  Phoenix,  without 
date  (Arsenal,  B.L.  6427A,  8e  piece). 

The  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot  also  appeared  hi  the  following  collections. 

(1)  Plusieurs  \  traictez,    par    aucuns  \  nouueaulx  poetes,    du    different  \  de 
Marot,  Sagon,  et  la  \  Hueterie.  \  Avec  le  Dieu  gard  du-  \  diet  Marot.  \  Epistre 
composee  par  Marot,  de  la  veue  du  \  Roy  et  de  Lempereur.  \  Dont  le  contenu  est 
de  lautre  coste  \  de  ce  fueillet.  \  Parisiis  \  1539.     M.  Paul  Bonnefon  (Revue 
d'Eist.  litt.  de  la  France,  1894,  p.  103,  note  i)  mentions  two  other  editions  of 
this  volume,  1537  and  1538,  sine  loco.    For  a  detailed  description  of  the  1539 
edition,  see  Picot,  Cat.  Rothschild,  vol.  i,  p.  432. 

(2)  (Euvres  de  CUment  Marot,  Lenglet-Dufresnoy  edition,  The  Hague,  1731, 
i2mo,  6  vol.,  vol.  vi;  the  same,  1731,  4to,  4  vol.,  vol.  iv. 

M.  Picot  (Cat.  Rothschild,  vol.  iii,  p.  406)  describes  a  Recueil  de  pieces  sur  la 
querelle  de  Marot  et  de  Sagon,  1537,  and  M.  Bonnefon  (Revue  d'Hist.  litt.  de  la 
France,  1894,  p.  104,  note  i)  mentions  a  similar  collection  (Arsenal,  B.L. 
642  7A),  both  of  which  contain  the  Disciples  et  amys  de  Marot. 

2.    LE  VALET  1 1  DE  MAROT  CONTRE  1 1  SAGON,  1 1  Cum  CommentO.  1 1  On 

les  vend  a  Paris  en  la  Rue  sainct  Jacques  1 1  pres  sainct  Benoist,  en 
la  bouticque  de  ||  lehan  Morin,  pres  les  troys  Couronnes  ||dar- 
gent.  ||  1537. 

8  vo.  8  ff.  unnumbered.  Signatures  A-B  fours.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Y.  4503; 
Bibl.  de  Versailles,  E  3526,  3®  piece. 

Title,  woodcut  representing  Frippelippes  beating  a  monkey  (sagouin  = 
Sagon)  with  a  stick  (reproduced  by  Guiffrey,  vol.  i,  p.  352).  Reverse  of  title, 
two  Latin  distichs  by  Christophe  Richer.  F.  2  r°,  Frippelippes  secretaire  de 
Clement  Marot  a  Francoys  Sagon,  secretaire  de  Vabbe  de  Sainct-Ebvroul,  by 
Marot.  F.  7  r°-f.  8  r°,  short  Latin  poem,  In  eum  qui  scripsit  in  Marotum, 
hendecasyllabum,  probably  by  Charles  Fontaine;  Dizain  conforme  aux  vers 
precedans,  par  Charles  Fontaines;  Huictain  envoye  a  Clement  Marot  par  ung 
sien  amy,  author  unknown.  F.  8  v°,  blank. 

Another  edition,  Lyons,  Pierre  de  Saincte-Lucie,  called  le  Prince,  8vo,  8  ff., 
without  date,  is  mentioned  in  the  Catalogue  Ye'me'niz,  no.  1722. 


246  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

3.  LA  viCTOi-ll  re  &  Triumphe  d'Ar-||  gent  centre  Cupido  1  1  dieu 
d'Amours  n'a  1  1  guieres  uain-  1  1  cu  dedans  1  1  Paris.  1  1  M.D.XXXVII. 
||  On  les  vend  a  Lyon  chez  ||  Francoys  luste  pres  nostre  ||  Dame 
de  Confort. 

Small  i6mo.  16  ff.  unnumbered,  v°  of  last  fol.  blank.  Signatures  A-B 
eights.  Two  woodcuts.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  Ye.  1601. 

The  title  is  surrounded  by  a  flowery  border.  Reverse  of  title  blank.  F.  2 
r°,  La  Victoire  et  Triumphe  d'  Argent  contre  Cupido,  etc.  F.  5  r°,  Ordonnance 
d'  Argent.  F.  9  r°,  huitain,  A  Vhonneur  d'une  dame  de  Paris  honneste  et  loyalle. 
F.  9  v°,  Excuse  aux  honnestes  el  loyalles  dames  et  damoyselles  de  Paris.  F.  10  r°, 
Fin.  These  poems  appeared  anonymously.  Brunei  ascribes  them  to  Almaque 
Papillon.  Concerning  the  Victoire  el  triumphe  d'  Argent,  M.  Picot  says  (Cat. 
Rothschild,  vol.  iv,  p.  293)  :  "  Ce  poeme,  ordinairement  attribue',  mais  sans 
preuves  sumsantes,  a  Almaque  Papillon,  se  retrouve  dans  plusieurs  manuscrits 
et  la  Bibliotheque  nationale  en  possede  une  Edition  du  xvie  siecle.  M.  G. 
Schmilinsky  1'a  relmprim6  en  1'accompagnant  d'une  traduction  en  vers  alle- 
mands  (Archiv  fur  das  Studium  der  neueren  Sprachen  und  Lilleraturen,  t.  xcv, 
1895,  pp.  131-152)."  Only  the  following  is  Fontaine's  work: 

F.   10  V°,  RESPONSE  FAICTE  ||  A  L'ENCONTRE  D'VN  ||  petit  lillTC, 

intitule  le  Triumphe  ||&  la  Victoire  D  'argent  cotre  ||  Cupido 
n'aguieres  vaincu  ||  dedas  Paris.  Par  mai-  1|  stre  Charles  ||  Fon- 
taines. F.  1  6  r°,  Fin. 


(1)  "  La  Contr'amye  de  Court,  Paris,  Adam  Saulnier,  1541,  in-8." 
Brunet,  vol.  ii,  col.  1326. 

(2)  La  Contr'amye  \  de  Court:  \  par  \  Maistre  Charles  Fontaine  \ 
Parisien  \  Vautheur  \  Qui  fors    Sulpice    entreprendra  \  De    m'im- 
primer  il  mesprendra  \  [Mark.]  |  A  Lyon,  chez  Sulpice  Sabon  \  pour 
Antoine  Constantin.  \  Avec  privilege  pour  un  an.  \  [At  the  end:] 
Imprime  a  Lyon  \  par  Sulpice  Sabon  \  1543. 

8vo.    47  pp.    Munich  Library. 

This  edition  is  mentioned  in  the  Catalogue  Didot,  1878,  no.  272,  with  the 
remark:  "  D6dicace  de  1'auteur  au  cardinal  de  Lorraine." 

(3)  La  contre  \  amye  de  la  court  \  Nicols  [sic]  de   Burges  |  1543 
[Rouen]. 

Arsenal,  B.L.  8368. 

This  is  probably  the  edition  of  which  Denys  Sauvage  said  (La  Contr'amye 
de  Court,  Saulnier,  1543:  Ung  amy  de  Vautheur  au  lecleur):  "  Ces  jours  passez 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  247 

quant  j'ay  veu  le  livre  de  la  Contr'amye  par  je  ne  scay  quel  brouillon  de  Rouen 
aultant  mal  imprint  que  bien  faict  par  1'autheur  .  .  ." 

(4)  La  |  Contr'amye  \  de  covrt:  \  Par  \  Charles  Fontaine  \  Parisien. 
|  Imprime  par  Adam  Saulnier.  \  1543. 

Small  8vo.  27  ff.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Ye.  479;  Cat.  Roth- 
schild, vol.  iv,  p.  214. 

(5)  "  La  Contr'amye  de  Court,  .  .  .  imprimee  a  Lyon  par  Jean  de 
Tournes,  .  .  .  1'an  1543." 

La  Croix  du  Maine,  vol.  i,  p.  108. 

B 

"  L'Amie  de  court  invert  tee  par  le  seigneur  de  La  Borderie;  la 
Contramie  de  court  par  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien;  1' Androgyne 
de  Platon  par  Antoine  Heroet  diet  La  Maison  neufve,  etc.  .  .  . 

"  Paris,  G.  Corrozet,  1542.    In-i6,  lettres  rondes. 

"  Edition  fort  rare  et  la  plus  complete." 

Bulletin  du  Bibliophile,  1861,  p.  125. 


In  1544  appeared  for  the  first  time  the  following  collection, 
which  contains  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  and  other  poems  of  the 
"  querelle  des  amies  ":  Le  mes-  \  pris  de  la  court,  \  avec  la  vie 
rustic-  |  que.  Nouvellement  traduict  De-  \  spagnol  en  Francoys.  \ 
Lamye  de  court  \  La  parfaicte  amye  \  La  contreamye  \  Landrozyne 
de  Platon  \  Lexperience  de  lamye  de  court,  \  contre  la  contreamye.  \ 
On  les  vend  a  la  grant  salle  du  Palais,  \  en  la  bouticque  de  Galiot  du 
pre,  |  1544. 

i2mo.    183  ff.  unnumbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  P.R.  348. 

Reverse  of  title,  dedication  by  Antoine  Alaigre  to  Guillaume  du  Prat, 
Bishop  of  Clermont.  Pp.  120-146,  La  Contreamye  de  Court. 

Le  Mespris  de  la  court  is  Antoine  Alaigre's  translation  of  the  Menosprecio  de 
la  Corte  y  Alabama  de  la  Aldea,  by  Antonio  de  Guevara.  It  has  no  connection 
with  the  "  querelle  des  amies." 

This  collection  was  reprinted  at  least  thirteen  times,  as  follows:  Paris, 
Guillaume  le  Bret,  1544  (Brunet);  Paris,  Guillaume  Thiboust,  1544  (La  Croix 
du  Maine,  vol.  i,  p.  36;  Cat.  Viollet-le-Duc,  1843,  p.  25);  Paris,  Jehan  Ruelle, 
1545  (Mazarine,  Reserve  36582);  Paris,  Arnoul  1'Angelier,  1546  (Lib.  of 
M.  Abel  Lefranc);  Paris,  Guillaume  le  Bret,  1549  (Mus£e  Cond€,  Chantilly, 
Catalogue,  vol.  iii,  no.  871);  Paris,  Th.  Ruelle,  1550  (Brunet);  Paris,  Jehan 


248  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ruelle,  1550  (Arsenal,  S.  A.  3245);  Paris,  Jehan  Ruelle,  1551  (Royal  Lib.  at 
Munich,  Ph.Pr.  607);  Paris,  Th.  Ruelle,  1556  (Brunei);  Paris,  Annet  Briere, 
1556  (Arsenal,  S.  A.  3246 *);  Paris,  Jehan  Ruelle,  1568  (Cat.  Rothschild,  vol.  i, 
p.  546);  Paris,  Jehan  Ruelle  le  jeune,  1568  (Bibl.  Nat.,  Inv.  Z.  32348);  Paris, 
Robert  le  Mangnier,  1568  (Arsenal,  S.  A.  3247). 

D 

The  Contr'amye  de  Court  was  also  published  in  the  following 
collection:  Opuscules  \  d 'amour, par  He-  \  roet,laBorderie,  \  etautres 
divins  \  Poetes.  \  A  Lyon,  \  Par  lean  de  Tournes.  \  M.D.XLVII  [1547]. 

8vo.  336  pp.  numbered  (and  not  346  pp.,  as  is  generally  given:  in  the 
paging  there  is  a  jump  from  288  to  299,  and  this  error  continuing  to  the  end, 
the  last  page  should  be  numbered  336  instead  of  346).  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve 
Ye.  1611;  Arsenal  B.L.  9249. 

The  Conlr'amye  de  Court  occupies  pp.  148-200.  It  is  preceded  by  the  fol- 
lowing pieces:  L'aulheur  au  lecteur;  Aulre;  M.  D.  Sauvage  au  lecteur  de  la 
Contr'amye;  Response  par  I'autheur;  epistle  by  Fontaine  to  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine.  P.  236,  L'Amy  de  la  Conlr'amye  de  court  d  I'honneste  Amant  [by 
Guillaume  des  Autelz]. 

Besides  the  Contr'amye  de  Court,  the  Opuscules  d' amour  contains  the  follow- 
ing poems:  the  Parfaicte  Amye  (pp.  3-69),  Epistre  au  Roy  Fr annoys,  premier 
de  ce  nom  (pp.  69-75),  L 'Androgyne  de  Platon  (pp.  75-85),  Aulre  invention 
extraicte  de  Platon:  De  n'aymer  point  sans  estre  aymi  (pp.  85-89),  Complainte 
d'une  dame  surprinse  nouvellement  d 'amour  (pp.  89-101),  all  by  Antoine  He'roet; 
Epistre  amoureuse  (pp.  102-110),  by  I[acques]  C[olin];  L'Amye  de  Court  (m- 
147),  by  Bertrand  de  La  Borderie;  L' Experience  de  M.  Paul  Angier  .  .  . 
(pp.  201-236);  Le  Nouvel  Amour  (237-268),  by  Almaque  Papillon.  The 
volume  ends  with  La  Borderie's  Discours  du  voyage  de  Constantinople. 

Virtually  all  the  bibliography  of  the  Contr'amye  de  Court  is  given  by  M. 
Gohin,  CEuvres  poetiques  d' Antoine  Heroet,  p.  xxvii,  note  i,  and  pp.  xlv  ff. 

1545 

5.   La  Fontai-  \  ne  d'A-  \  mour,  \  contenant  Elegies,  Epistres,  &•  |  Epi- 
grammes.  \  A  Lyon,  \  Par  \  Jean  de  Tournes,  \  1545. 

8vo.     British  Museum,  1073. 

The  first  edition.  On  account  of  the  European  War,  I  have  been  unable  to 
examine  it. 

The  following  is  the  best  known  edition  of  this  important  work: 

LA  ||  FONTAINE  ||  D'AMOVR,  con-  ||  tenant  Elegies,  Epi-  \\  stres, 
&•  Epi- 1|  grammes.  \\  X  PARIS.  \\  1546.  ||  De  Plmprimerie  de  leanne 
de  Marnef,  demou- 1|  rant  en  la  rue  Neuue  nostre  Dame  a  1'en- 
seigne  1 1  saint  lean  Baptiste. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  249 

i6mo.  120  ff.  unnumbered.  Signatures  A-P  eights.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve 
Ye.  1609. 

The  title  is  surrounded  by  an  elaborate  cartouche,  with  the  device  Nul  ne 
s'yfrote.  Reverse  of  title,  huitain,  L'autheur  aux  dames;  quatrain,  Aux  mes- 
disants.  F.  Aij  r°,  dedication  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  signed  Charles  Fontaine. 
F.  Avj  r°,  Elegies,  twenty-two  in  number.  F.  Evij  v°,  Epistres,  nineteen  in 
number.  F.  Hij  v°,  Epigrammes,  only  two  of  which  are  addressed  to  contem- 
poraries of  consequence:  Pierre  Saliat  and  Antoine  du  Moulin.  F.  Kviij  v°, 
Fin  de  la  Fontaine  d'amour. 

F.  L  r°,  Ensuyvent  deux  limes  d' Epigrammes  du  mesme  autheur.  F.  L  v°, 
dedicatory  poem  to  Monsieur  du  Peyral,  lieutenant  general  pour  le  Roy  en  la 
seneschauce  de  Lyon,  Charles  Fontaine,  salut.  F.  Lij  r°,  Le  premier  lime.  The 
epigrams  of  the  first  book  are  inscribed  to  the  following  persons:  M.  Tira- 
queau,  conseillier  en  Parlement  a  Paris;  M.  du  Puys,  lieutenant  particulier  en 
la  seneschauce'  de  Lyon;  le  Roy;  la  royne  de  Navarre;  Mme  la  princesse  de 
Navarre;  M.  Cristofle  Boulaud,  avocat  en  Parlement  a  Paris;  Maistre  Fran- 
goys  Verius,  chanoine  de  Mascon;  De  la  mart  el  de  Marot;  M.  Vincent  Hugand, 
esleu  de  Mascon;  le  chevalier  Rochefort;  Maistre  Jacques  Bryau;  Epitaphe 
defeu  M.  Bude,  en  son  vivant  maistre  des  requestes  du  Roy;  le  viconte  de  Usez; 
Maistre  Annemond  Polier,  procureur  de  Lyon,  lorsqu'il  fut  mari6;  Marguerite 
Senneton,  Lyonnoise;  Claude  Brielle,  Lyonnoise;  Marie  Brielle,  Lyonnoise; 
1'amye  de  Maistre  Antoine  du  Moulin,  Masconnois;  M.  de  Saleignac,  docteur 
de  Mgr  le  cardinal  de  Lorraine;  le  prieur  de  Daumont;  Catherine  Fontaine; 
Clement  Marot;  M.  de  Canaples,  capitaine,  et  Canape,  medecin;  M.  du 
Peyrat,  lieutenant  de  Lyon,  present^  sur  les  rempars  de  Saint  Just;  Ymbert 
Faure;  M.  Nicole  Mellier,  lieutenant  de  M.  le  juge  ordinaire  de  Lyon;  Maistre 
Jean  Gravier;  Philibert  Trougnart;  M.  Maurice  Sceve;  Bartolomy  Royet  et 
sa  femme;  Maistre  Nicole  le  Jouvre;  M.  Danesius;  Maurice  Sceve  et  Barto- 
lomy Aneau;  M.  Jacques  de  Cambray,  chancelier  de  Bourges,  estant  a  Fer- 
rare;  Maistre  Jean  Bureau;  Jean  Chalant;  Maistre  Guillaume  de  Troemont; 
M.  Morelet;  le  Dauphin;  M.  Sceve,  conseillier  de  Chambdry;  M.  le  capitaine 
Sala;  Anne  Durande;  le  capitaine  George  Regnard,  Lyonnois;  Epitaphe  de 
Jean  Theze,  Lyonnois,  fait  en  vers  alexandrins;  M.  de  BoysonnS,  conseillier  de 
Chambe'ry;  M.  le  conseillier  de  PEstoile;  M.  Brinon,  filz  unique  de  feu  M.  le 
president  de  Rouen;  M.  Tignac,  juge  ordinaire  civil  et  criminel  en  la  ville  de 
Lyon;  M.  du  Lyon,  conseillier  en  Parlement  a  Paris;  M.  Quelin,  aussi  con- 
seillier au  Parlement  de  Paris;  M.  le  conseillier  Torveon  et  Dame  Magdeleine 
du  Peyrat,  pour  le  jour  precedent  leurs  nopces,  quand  il  pleuvoit. 

F.  Nvij  r°,  Le  second  lime  des  Epigrammes,  addressed  to  the  following 
persons:  M.  Morelet  de  Museau,  conseillier  du  Roy,  et  ambassadeur  pour 
ledit  seigneur  en  Suisse,  seigneur  de  la  Marcheferriere  et  du  Bourgeau;  M. 
Philipes  de  Pise,  esleu  pour  le  Roy  a  Mascon;  le  cardinal  de  Lorraine;  Antoine 
de  Pise;  le  cardinal  de  Tournon,  retournant  sain  par  Lyon  par  ou  il  avoit 
passS  estant  fort  malade;  Maistre  Denis  Sauvage  et  M.  de  Besze,  entre  les 
mains  et  jugement  desquelz  Pautheur  remet  son  livre;  Flora,  femme  de  1'au- 
theur;  Maistre  Marin  Aubl6,  precepteur  des  enfants  de  M.  le  connestable; 


250  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Maistre  Jean  des  Gouttes;  Maistre  Vincent  de  la  Loupe,  avocat  en  Parlement 
&  Paris;  Jacques  Senneton,  Lyonnois;  Pierre  Moyreau  de  Dourdan,  com- 
paignon  imprimeur,  lorsqu'il  composoit  en  1'imprimerie  le  present  livre;  Alexis 
Jure  de  Quiers  et  Claude  le  Maistre,  Lyonnois;  Maistre  Annemond  Polier, 
procureur  de  Lyon;  Maistre  Odoart  le  Verrier,  clerc  au  greffe  du  Roy  it  Lyon; 
Maistre  Antoine  Noailly,  procureur  a  Lyon;  le  chanoine  Gauteret,  Lyonnois; 
Maistre  Francoys  1'Archer,  clerc  des  comptes;  M.  de  Chemant,  president  de 
Piedmont,  1'autheur  allant  a  Venise;  M.  de  Loudon,  son  gendre;  M.  Dane- 
bault,  lieutenant  pour  le  Roy  en  Piedmont;  Maistre  Francoys  Morel,  greffier 
en  la  court  ordinaire  de  Lyon;  le  chanoine  Caill6;  le  Roy,  jl  qui  1'autheur  avoit 
fait  presenter  un  livre;  la  royne  de  Navarre;  Maistre  Guillaume  Durand, 
Lyonnois;  Hugues  Salel,  valet  de  chambre  du  Roy  et  poete  francoys;  Maistre 
Guillaume  Telin,  secretaire  de  M.  le  due  de  Guise;  Maistre  Antoine  Virieu, 
enquesteur  en  la  seneschauce1  de  Lyon;  MM.  Canape,  VacS,  et  Tolet,  trois 
medecins  de  Lyon;  1'escuyer  Catherin  Jean,  maistre  de  la  poste  du  Roy  a 
Lyon;  Pierre  Reclus,  apothicaire;  M.  Corqueron,  maistre  de  la  chapelle  du 
Roy;  Maistre  Denys  Sauvage,  avocat  et  poete  francoys;  Maistre  Pierre 
Saliat;  De  la  mart  de  M.  Braillon,  medecin  de  Paris  tres  renomme;  le  cardinal 
de  Ferrare,  archevesque  de  Lyon;  M.  Granger,  docteur  en  medecine  4  Paris; 
M.  de  la  Fay,  Lyonnois;  Maistre  Noe  Alibert,  Lyonnois;  les  compaignons 
imprimeurs  de  la  ville  de  Paris. 

F.  Pviij  v°,  Fin  du  II  livre  des  epigrammes;  mark  of  Denis  Janot,  with  the 
mottoes  Palere,  aut  absline  and  Nul  ne  s'y  frole,  and  the  name  of  Janot's 
widow,  Jeanne  de  Marnef. 

Two  other  editions  of  the  Fontaine  d'amour  were  published  at  Lyons  in 
1572  and  1588  by  Benoist  Rigaud  under  the  title  of  Le  Jardin  d'amour,  avec  la 
Fontaine  d'amour,  contenant  Elegies,  tant  imientees  que  traduictes.  Epigrammes, 
et  aulres  chases  fort  plaisantes  et  recreatives  (Baudrier,  Bibl.  lyon.,  3"  seiie,  pp. 
281  and  406). 

1546 
6.     ESTREINES,  ||  A  CERTAINS  SEI-  ||  GNEVRS,  ET  DA-  ||  MES  DE  LYON.  || 

Par  1  1  Maistre  Charles  Fontaine  \  \  Parisien.  \  \  A  quoy  est  adiouste 
vn  Chant  Nuptial  de  Lau  ||  theur,  faict  &  presente  pour  les 
Nopces  de  ||  Monsieur  le  Conseiller  Torueon,  &  mada-  ||  me 
Magdeleine  du  Peyrat.  Ensemble  1  1  vne  Eclogue  Pastorale,  sur 
les  Nopces  de  1  1  Lautheur,  a  luy  addressee,  &  faicte  par  vn  1  1  sien 
amy,  Poete,  &  Aduocat  de  Paris.  ||  A  LYON,  ||  Par  lean  de  Tournes. 


Small  8vo.    32  pp.  numbered.    Arsenal,  B.L.  9074. 

Reverse  of  title,  quatrain,  L'autheur  d  ses  quatrains. 

P.  3,  Estreines,  d  certains  seigneurs,  et  dames  de  Lyon,  all  quatrains,  ad- 
dressed to  the  following  persons:  Mgr  du  Peyrat,  lieutenant  general  pour  le 
Roy  a  Lyon;  Mme  la  lieutenande;  le  conseiller  Tourveon;  Magdeleine  du 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  251 

Peyrat,  sa  femme;  le  juge  Tignac;  M.  du  Puys,  lieutenant  particulier  en  la 
seneschaulc6  de  Lyon;  MM.  les  eschevins  de  Lyon;  le  conseiller  de  Villars;  le 
thresorier  des  Ligues;  M.  de  la  Fay;  Mme  de  la  Fay;  Maistre  Annemond 
Polier;  le  chevalier  Rochefort;  Sire  Jean  de  Rochefort;  Marguerite  Senneton, 
sa  femme;  Sire  Jacques  Senneton  et  ses  freres;  Dame  Clemence  de  Rochefort; 
Dame  Daniele;  Claude  Bryelle;  Marie  Bryelle,  sa  sceur;  Dame  Meraulde  de 
la  Porte;  Marguerite  de  la  Porte;  M.  Guillot,  advocat  de  1'auteur;  Sire  Pierre 
Sceve;  Francoys  Santian,  filz  de  Mme  de  Villette;  Maistre  Antoine  Noalli, 
procureur;  Pierre  Rati,  paintre;  M.  Beneri;  le  capitaine  Sala;  Mme  Anne 
Durande,  sa  femme,  estant  en  couche;  le  chanoine  Caill6;  le  chanoine  Char- 
ton;  M.  Canappe,  medecin;  le  chanoine  Gauteret;  Maistre  Guillaume 
Durand;  Caspar  Fontaine,  petit  filz  de  1'autheur;  Maistre  Jean  Chaillart, 
notaire  royal;  M.  Athiaud,  advocat  de  Lyon;  M.  Mellier,  lieutenant  de  M.  le 
juge  ordinaire  de  Lyon;  1'advocat  Mellier,  son  frere;  Pierre  Burgaud;  M. 
Maurice  Sceve;  Mme  du  Peron;  Mme  de  la  Pardieu,  sa  fille;  Mme  Fleurie 
Mayaude;  Pesleu  Leuin;  Loys  Thes6;  Maistre  Matthieu  Michel;  Maistre 
Sebastien  Gryphius;  Jean  de  Tournes,  maistre  imprimeur;  Maistre  Claude 
Morel,  greffier  de  la  court  ordinaire  de  Lyon;  Sire  Hugues  de  la  Porte;  le 
receveur  Jean  des  Gouttes;  Maistre  Jacques  Page;  1'escuyer  Caterin  Jean; 
Maistre  Edoart  Verrier;  Philippes  Thomas,  cousin  de  1'autheur;  1'advocat 
Guybert;  Sire  Humbert  Faure;  1'advocat  Thomas;  Maistre  Jean  Vidilli; 
Maistre  Barthelemy  Aneau;  Maistre  Jean  Gravier;  Maistre  Antoine  du 
Moulin;  Jean  de  la  Landre;  Maistre  Noe  Alibert;  Charles  de  la  Porte; 
Maistre  Jacob  Southan,  chyrurgien;  Anne  de  Rochefort;  Maistre  Antoine 
Pinel,  clerc  du  greffe  de  la  seneschaulce  du  Roy,  a  Lyon;  M.  de  Lyuron;  Sure 
Martin  le  Maire,  orfevre  de  Lyon;  Jean  Vasis. 

P.  21,  Chant  nuptial,  sur  le  mariage  de  Monsieur  le  Conseiller  Tourueon  et 
Madame  Magdaleine  du  Peyrat:  Faict  et  presente  par  [sic]  leurs  nopces.  P.  25, 
Eclogue  pastoralle,  sur  le  mariage  de  maistre  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien,  et  Mar- 
guerite Carme  Lyonnoise:  composee  par  M.  D[enys]  S[auvage],  poete  et  adwcal 
a  Paris.  P.  32,  Pour  conclusion,  Vautheur  a  soymesme,  quatrain. 

EPITOME  ||  DES  TROIS  PREMIERS  ||  LIVRES  DE  ARTEMI-  ||  dorus 
ancien  autheur,  trai-  ||  ctant  des  Son- 1|  ges.  ||  Nouuellement  tra- 
duictz  en  Francoys,  \\  par  Maistre  Charles  \\  Fontaine.  ||  [Mark.]  || 
A  LYON,  ||  Par  lean  de  Tournes.  ||  1546. 

Small  8vo.  144  pp.  numbered.  Arsenal,  Sc.  et  A.  9409;  Sainte-Genevi£ve 
Z  94,  Reserve. 

Reverse  of  title,  huitain,  A  la  ville  de  Lyon.  P.  3,  dedication,  Le  traducteur  a 
quelque  personnage  dauthorite.  P.  19,  Preface  de  lautheur.  P.  22,  Epitome  du 
premier  livre.  P.  65,  Le  translateur  a  Monsieur  Maistre  Fran$oys  Verius,  cha- 
noine de  Mascon.  P.  72,  Preface  de  lautheur  sur  le  second  livre.  P.  73,  Epitome 
du  second  livre.  P.  1 20,  Le  translateur  a  son  cousin  Maistre  lean  Bureau.  P. 
125,  Epitome  du  troysiesme  livre.  P.  144,  Fin  de  V Epitome  des  trois  premiers 
livres  de  Artemidorus,  traictant  des  songes. 
Reprinted  at  Paris,  by  Jeanne  de  Marnef,  1547,  i6mo. 


252  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1552 

8.  LES  \  |  EPISTRES  1 1  D'OVIDE  NOV-  1 1  udlement  mises  en  vers  \  \  Fran- 
Qoys  ||  Par  M.  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien:  ||  Auec  les  Prefaces  & 
Annota- 1|  tions:  le  tout  non  par-cy  ||  deuant  imprime.  ||  Plus  y  a 
la  response  a  icelles  epistres.  \  \  [Mark.]  1 1  A  LYON,  1 1  Par  lean  Tem- 
poral. ||  1552.  ||  Auec  Priuilege.  \\  [At  the  end:]  ACHEV£  D'IMPRI-  || 
mer  le  quatorzieme  d'Apuril,  \\  mil  cinq  cens  cinquante  deux,  \\ 
auant  Pasques.  \  \  A  LYON,  \  \  Par  Philibert  Rollet. 

i6mo.  238  pp.  numbered,  and  i  f.  unnumbered.  Woodcuts.  Arsenal, 
B.L.  2955;  Bibl.  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  803786. 

Edition  divided  between  Jean  Temporal  and  Eustache  Barricat. 

Reverse  of  title,  Privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  six  years,  faict  d 
Paris  le  quatorzieme  luillel,  mil  cinq  cens  quarante  huict.  P.  3,  dedication,  A 
noble  et  puissant  seigneur  Antoine  de  Crussol,  seigneur  dudict  lieu,  seneschal  de 
Cahors  en  Querci,  et  I'un  des  cent  gentilzhommes  de  la  chambre  du  Roy,  Charles 
Fontaine,  humble  salut,  dated  Lyons,  January  i,  1551.  P.  8,  Petit  advertisse- 
ment  aux  lecteurs.  Pp.  15-223,  Fontaine's  translation  of  the  first  ten  Heroides, 
with  prefaces  and  notes  by  Fontaine.  P.  224,  Le  traducteur  aux  lecteurs.  P. 
237,  Aux  lecteurs.  P.  238,  Table  des  dix  epistres  precedents.  Last  folio  r°, 
AchevS  d' imprinter. 

In  the  same  volume:  LA  RESPON-  ||  SE  AVX  DIX  EPI-  ||  STRES  PRECE-  || 
DENIES.  ||  PAR  MICHEL  \\  D'AMBOISE.  142  pp.  numbered. 

1553 

9.  LA  PREMIERE  1 1  PARTIE    DV   PROMPTVAI-  1 1  RE    DES    MEDALLES   DES 

PLVS  ||  renommees  personnes  qui  ont  este  depuis  le  ||  com- 
mencement du  monde:  auec  brieue  ||  description  de  leurs  vies  & 
faicts,  ||  recueillie  des  bons  ||  auteurs.  ||  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON  CHEZ 
GVILLAV-  ||  ME  ROViLLE.  ||  1553.  ||  Auec  PfiuUege  du  Roy,  pour 
dix  ans. 

4to,  in  two  parts.  First  part,  4  ff.  unnumbered,  172  pp.  numbered,  2  ff. 
unnumbered.  Second  part,  247  pp.  numbered,  4  ff.  unnumbered.  Sainte- 
Genevieve,  ZZ  517;  British  Museum,  7755  C. 

First  part:  reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Guillaume  Roville 
for  ten  years.  F.  a  2,  dedication  to  Marguerite  of  France.  F.  a  3,  Guillaume 
Rouille  au  lecteur.  P.  2,  Les  noms  des  autheurs  et  livres  que  nous  avons  alleguez  en 
ce  Promptuaire  des  Medales.  P.  3,  Admonition  au  lecteur,  followed  by  Errata. 
P.  5,  beginning  of  the  first  part  of  the  Promptuaire,  with  so-called  portraits  of 
Adam  and  Eve.  P.  172,  Fin  de  la  premiere  partie.  F.  m  7,  Table. 

Second  part:  reverse  of  title,  La  nativite  de  nostre  Sauveur  lesus  Christ. 
P.  3,  beginning  of  the  second  part  of  the  Promptuaire.  P.  247  v°,  Au  tres 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  253 

chrestien  Henri  second  du  nom,  Charles  Fontaine,  medallion  of  Henry  II,  with 
a  quatrain  by  Fontaine. 

The  Promptuaire  des  Medalles  is  a  French  translation  by  Charles  Fontaine 
of  the  following  work  by  Guillaume  Roville:  Promptuarium  iconum  insig- 
niorum  a  seculo  hominum,  subiectis  eorum  vitis,  per  compendium,  ex  proba- 
tissimis  autoribus  desumptis,  Lugduni,  apud  Gulielmum  Rovillium,  1553. 
Concerning  Fontaine  as  the  translator  of  the  Promptuarium,  see  pp.  139  ff., 
above. 

The  Promptuaire  is  composed  of  some  800  woodcuts  en  medaillons,  with 
paragraphs  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  lines  relating  to  the  persons  represented. 
According  to  La  Croix  du  Maine  (vol.  i,  p.  265),  the  medallions  were  executed 
by  "  Georges  Reverdy,  excellent  graveur  au  burin  ...  II  florissoit  a  Lyon 
Tan  1555."  M.  Baudrier  thinks  that  Reverdy  received  the  assistance  of  other 
artists.  Concerning  the  worth  and  the  authenticity  of  the  medallions,  see 
Breghot  du  Lut,  Nouveaux  melanges  biographiques  et  litteraires,  Lyons,  1829-31, 
p.  176;  Brunei,  Manuel,  vol.  iv,  col.  900. 

Latin  editions  of  the  Promptuarium  (text  by  Roville)  appeared  in  1553, 
1578,  and  1581;  Italian  editions  (text  by  Roville)  in  1553,  1577,  and  1581; 
French  editions  (Fontaine's  translation)  hi  1553,  1576,  1577,  1581;  a  Spanish 
edition  (translation  of  Juan  Martin  Cordero)  hi  1561. 

A  work  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Dialogos  de  Medallas,  inscriciones  y  otras 
antiguedades,  ex  bibliotheca  Ant.  Augustin  Archiepiscopi  Tarraconen.  En 
Tarragona  par  Felipe  Mey,  1587,  speaks  of  the  Promptuarium  as  follows 
(p.  486) :  "  Y  assi  mismo  tambien  imprimio  Rovillio  otro  libro  con  titulo  de 
Promptuario  de  medallas,  donde  estan  rostros  fingidos  de  todas  las  personas 
senaladas  con  algunos  verdaderos  desde  Adan  hasta  nuestro  tiempo,  sin 
roversos." 

1554 

10.  Les  nouuelles,  &  1 1  Antiques  merueilles.  1 1  PLVS,  1 1  Vn  traicte  des 
douze  Cesar s,  Premiers  \\  Empereurs  de  Romme,  nouuellement  \\ 
traduit  d'ltalien  en  Francois.  \\  En  fin  y  a  vne  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a 
||  la  mile  de  Paris,  faite  en  luin  1554.  \\  AVEC  PRIVILEGE,  ||  A 
PARIS,  ||  Chez  Guillaume  le  Noir,  rue  sainct  lac-  \\  ques  a  la  Rose 
blanche  couronnee.  \\  1554. 

i6mo.  96  ff.  unnumbered.  Signatures  A-M  eights.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve 
p.G.  2900. 

Reverse  of  title  blank.  Aij  r°,  dedication,  A  Monsieur  d'lvor,  secretaire  du 
Roy,  Charles  Fontaine,  S.  Av  r°,  Sommaire  du  livre  des  nouvelles  Isles.  Di  r°,  Les 
Antiques  Meroeittes,  autrement  les  fleurs  du  lime  de  Asse  .  .  .  Fviij  r°,  Petit 
traite  des  douze  premiers  Empereurs  de  Romme,  a  scavoir  depuis  lules  Cesar 
jusques  a  Domitian,  nouvellement  traduit  d'ltalien  en  Fran^oys.  Kiv  v°  blank. 

Kv  r°,  Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  mile  de  Paris.  Par  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien, 
1554  en  Juin.  The  Ode  is  composed  of  102  quatrains,  the  first  ten  of  which  are 


254  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

devoted  to  the  praise  of  Paris,  its  monuments,  its  institutions,  etc.;  for  ex- 
ample, Notre-Dame,  the  Seine,  the  College  du  Plessis,  the  Pont-au-Change, 
the  Montagne  Sainte-Genevieve.  The  remaining  quatrains  are  addressed  as 
follows:  a  la  souveraine  court  de  Parlement  en  general;  a  M.  Olivier,  chance- 
lier  de  France;  a  M.  Magistri,  premier  president;  a  M.  de  Sainct  Andre", 
second  president;  a  M.  Minart,  tiers  president;  a  M.  Maigret,  quart  presi- 
dent; a  M.  de  Thou,  aussi  president;  a  Mgrs  les  evesques  d'Ade,  de  Lombes, 
de  Nevers,  de  Nantes,  et  de  Sees;  a  M.  de  PHospital,  maistre  des  requestes  de 
1'hostel  du  Roy,  et  chef  du  conseil  de  Mme  Marguerite  de  France;  a  M. 
Tiraqueau,  conseiller  en  Parlement,  et  a  Madamoiselle  sa  femme;  a  MM.  les 
conseillers  du  Lyon,  Venus,  de  Chantecler,  de  Viole,  seigneur  d'Aigremont,  E. 
de  la  Porte,  de  Villaines,  d'Epesse,  Senneton;  a  M.  de  Thori,  prevost  de  Paris 
receu,  et  qui  a  la  stirvivance  aprSs  M.  de  Nantoillet,  son  p£re;  a  M.  d'Yvort, 
secretaire  du  Roy,  et  a  Madamoiselle  sa  femme;  a  M.  le  chancelier  de  Bourges, 
ambassadeur  pour  le  Roy  en  Transylvanie,  qui  a  nom  Jacques  de  Cambray;  a 
M.  le  conseiller  Robert  de  la  Haye;  a  Marie  Buzelin;  a  Madamoiselle  de  la 
Haye,  soeur  dudict  de  la  Haye;  a  M.  de  Saleignac,  docteur  en  theologie;  a 
M.  de  Sangelays;  a  M.  Amyot,  qui  a  traduit  Diodore  et  Heliodore,  et  encor 
les  Vies  de  Plutarque;  a  M.  Morel,  seigneur  de  Greigny,  mareschal  des  logis 
ordinaire  de  la  Royne;  a  M.  Francois  1'Archer,  procureur  en  la  chambre  des 
comptes;  a  M.  Joubert,  lieutenant  criminel  de  la  vOle  de  Bourges;  a  M.  le 
Coigneux  advocat  en  Parlement,  alli6  de  1'auteur;  a  M.  de  Chapes,  advocat  en 
Parlement;  a  M.  Touchet,  lieutenant  particulier  a  Orleans,  et  a  Marie  Crabe, 
sa  femme,  et  a  son  petit  fils;  a  M.  Vincent  Lupanus,  lieutenant  criminel  de  la 
ville  de  Chartres;  a  M.  Sceve,  advocat  en  Parlement;  a  M.  de  Quincy,  aussi 
advocat  en  Parlement;  a  M.  Sibillet,  advocat  en  Parlement,  qui  a  fait  1'Art 
poetic  francois,  et  traduit  PIphigene,  tragedie  d'Euripide;  a  M.  G.  Aubert, 
advocat  en  Parlement;  a  M.  I.  Desavenelles,  advocat  en  Parlement;  a  M. 
Moysson,  greffier  en  Parlement;  a  M.  Content,  procureur  en  Parlement,  qui 
fut  maistre  es  arts  au  College  du  Plessis  avec  1'auteur;  a  M.  du  Luc,  aussi  pro- 
cureur en  Parlement;  a  M.  Boulaud;  a  M.  Sylvius,  medecin;  a  M.  Oronce, 
lecteur  du  Roy  en  l'Universit6  de  Paris,  es  mathematiques;  a  M.  Fernel, 
medecin;  a  M.  Granger,  aussi  medecin;  a  M.  Ruel,  medecin  a  Orleans;  a  M. 
Coroneus,  lecteur  du  Roy  en  1'Universite'  de  Paris;  a  M.  Chesneau,  principal 
du  College  de  Tours,  et  lecteur  public  es  lettres  ebralques  a  Paris;  a  M.  Saliat, 
qui  a  traduit  Herodote  de  grec  en  francois;  a  M.  1'advocat  du  Roy  a  Es- 
tampes,  qui  est  alli6  de  1'auteur;  a  M.  Nicolai,  geographe  du  Roy;  a  M.  de 
Belle-Isle;  a  M.  de  Querinec,  gentilhomme  de  Bretaigne;  a  M.  Dorat,  homme 
docte  et  tresrenomm6  en  savoir;  a  M.  de  Ronsard,  poete  qui  nous  a  resuscite" 
le  Pyndare,  poete  lyrique  grec;  a  M.  Jodelle,  seigneur  de  Limode',  poete  latin 
etfranfois;  a  M.  de  Mangni,  poete;  a  M.  de  Baif,  poete;  a  Henri  Estienne;  a 
M.  le  protonotaire  P.  de  la  Saulx,  de  la  maison  de  Mgr  le  cardinal  de  Chastil- 
lon;  a  M.  Angelus,  homme  savant,  et  qui  a  fait  de  grans  voyages  avec  les 
ambassadeurs  de  France;  a  M.  Capel,  poete;  a  M.  de  Mesme,  fort  docte,  et 
poete  latin  et  francois;  a  Antoine  Dugu6  et  Maturin  de  Villette,  cousins  de 
1'auteur;  a  Lyon  Jamet,  seigneur  de  Chambrum,  secretaire  de  Mme  Ren6e  de 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  255 

France,  duchesse  de  Ferrare;  au  seigneur  Gruget,  Parisien;  au  seigneur 
Gohorri,  Parisien;  au  seigneur  Belon;  a  M.  G.  Galterus,  homme  vertueux  et 
savant,  et  ancien  bon  ami  de  1'auteur;  a  M.  Tufan;  a  M.  Pasquier,  advocat  en 
Parlement;  au  seigneur  Vascosan,  imprimeur  et  libraire;  au  comte  d'Alsinois 
[Nicolas  Denisot];  a  M.  le  Riche;  a  M.  le  contreroleur  Ant.  de  Surie;  a  M.  I. 
de  Bieure,  gentilhomme  champanois;  a  M.  Poirot,  huyssier  de  salle  de  la 
Royne;  a  M.  I.  Ferrand;  au  seigneur  Rolat,  Lyonnois;  au  seigneur  Tagault, 
fils  du  medecin;  a  M.  Francoys  du  Cleray. 

Lvij  r°,  six  odes,  five  of  which  are  addressed  to  the  following  persons:  Flora, 
Fontaine's  wife;  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet;  Francois  1'Archer.  Mij  v°,  Ode 
a  Charles  Fontaine,  par  B.  du  Tronchet,  Masconnois.  Mv  r°,  Pour  intelligence 
a  quelz  personnages  s'addressent  les  quatrains  de  I'Ode  pour  Dieu  gard  a  la  ville  de 
Paris.  Mviij  v°,  Le  privilege,  granted  for  three  years  to  Guillaume  le  Noir, 
libraire  et  relieur  iur6  de  I'universite  de  Paris,  dated  le  xxviij  iour  de  luillet  1554. 

11.  LES    ||    FIGVRES    ||   DV    ||    NOWEAU   ||    TESTAMENT.    ||    [Mark.]    ||   A 
LYON,  1 1  PAR  IAN  DE  TOVRNES.  1 1  M.D.LHII. 

8vo.  52  ff.  unnumbered.  Signatures  A-F  eights,  G  four.  Mus6e  Conde", 
Chantilly,  XII  B2. 

Reverse  of  title  blank.  A  2  r°,  L 'imprimeur  aux  lecteurs.  A  3  r°,  sixain,  A 
tresillustre  et  treshaute  Princesse,  Madame  Marguerite  de  France,  Duchesse 
de  Berri,  Charles  Fontaine,  S.  A3  v°-A  5  r°,  four  woodcuts  representing 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  in  the  act  of  writing,  accompanied  by 
sixains  by  Fontaine.  A  5  v°-D  8  r°,  fifty-four  woodcuts  depicting  incidents 
from  the  canonical  Gospels,  such  as  the  Annunciation,  the  Nativity,  Christ  in 
the  Temple,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Lazarus  and  Dives,  Christ  before 
Pilate,  the  Crucifixion,  etc.,  all  explained  by  Fontaine's  sixains.  D  8  v°-E  5  v°, 
eleven  woodcuts  depicting  incidents  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  with  sixains 
by  Fontaine.  E  5  v°,  Fin.  E  6  r°-G  2  v°,  twenty-six  woodcuts  based  on  the 
Apocalypse,  without  Fontaine's  sixains.  G  3  r°-G  4  r°,  Avertissement  aux 
lecteurs,  by  Fontaine. 

The  chief  interest  of  the  Figures  du  Nouveau  Testament  lies  in  the  ninety- 
five  woodcuts  by  Bernard  Salomon,  called  le  Petit  Bernard,  or  by  his  pupils. 

Reprinted  at  least  four  tunes:  1556,  1558,  1559,  1579.  The  catalogue  of 
the  British  Museum  mentions  an  edition  dated  thus:  1580  ?  Du  Verdier 
(vol.  i,  p.  300)  mentions  an  edition  by  Hierosme  de  Marnef,  i6mo. 

Many  similar  works,  dealing  with  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments, 
were  published  at  Lyons  by  Jean  de  Tournes,  Guillaume  Roville,  Jean  Frellon, 
and  others. 

1555 

12.  SENSVYVENT  \\  LES  RVIS-  ||  SEAVX  DE  FON-  ||  TAINE:  ||  Oeuure 
con  tenant  Epitres,  Elegies,  Chants  1 1  diuers,  Epigrammes,  Odes, 
&  Estrenes  ||  pour  cette  presente  annee  1555.  ||  Par  Charles 
Fontaine,  ||  Parisien.  ||  Plus  yaw  traitt  du  passetemps  des  amis, 


256  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

auec  1 1  vn  translat  (Tim  liure  d'Ovide,  6*  de  28.  \  \  Enigmes  de  Sym- 
posius,  tr aduits  par  \\  ledict  Fontaine.  \\  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  \\ 
PAR  THIBAVLD  PAYAN.  ||  1555.  ||  Auec  priuUege  du  Roy. 

8vo.  399  pp.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  R6serve  Ye.  1610;  Arsenal,  Reserve 
B.L.  6507;  Mazarine,  Reserve  21643;  Bibl.  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  318105. 

Reverse  of  title,  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  four  years,  dated 
Paris,  January  16,  1552.  P.  3,  two  quatrains,  a  sixain,  and  a  distich,  A  la 
louenge  de  Po'esie.  P.  4,  huitain,  A  Jean  Brinon,  Seigneur  de  Villaynes,  Con- 
seiller  du  Roy  en  sa  Court  de  Parlement  d  Paris,  signed  Hante  le  Franqoys. 

P.  5,  Epilres,  as  follows:  Epilre  au  Roy  [Francois  Ier],  d  qui  I'auteur  adressoit 
une  sienne  traduction;  Epitre,  philosophanl  sur  la  bonne  amour:  a  une  dame; 
E.  H.  d  C.  Fontaine;  Response  par  Charles  Fontaine;  C.  Fontaine  d  N.  le  Jouvre; 
A  une  dame  pour  la  consoler  sur  la  mort  de  son  mary;  A  Madame  Renee  de 
France,  Duchesse  de  Ferrare. 

P.  48,  Elegies,  as  follows:  Elegie  sur  le  trespas  de  Catherine  Fontaine,  sasur  de 
I'auteur;  Elegie  seur  le  trespas  de  Rene,  cinquiesme  enfant,  et  tiers  filz  de  I'auteur. 

P.  55,  Chants  divers,  as  follows:  Chant  sur  la  naissance  de  Jan,  second  filz  de 
I'auteur;  Chant  nuptial  allegorique;  Le  Dieu  gard  d  la  ville  de  Lyon,  faict  Van 
1540;  L' adieu  d  ladite  ville,  ou  I'auteur  avoit  prinsfemme,  et  pour  un  sien  proces 
s'en  alloit  d  Paris  Van  1547;  Le  Dieu  gard  d  la  ville  de  Paris;  Petit  chant  de 
louange  d  tresillustre  et  tresvertueuse  Princesse,  Madame  Marguerite  de  France, 
Duchesse  de  Berri,  fille  et  saeur  de  Roy. 

P.  67,  S'ensuit  un  livre  d'Epigrammes,  adresse  par  I'auteur  d  M.  le  Conseiller 
Jan  Brinon.  The  epigrams  are  addressed  to  the  following  persons:  Flora, 
femme  de  I'auteur;  Michel  du  Rochay;  M.  Brinon;  I.  Gentil  et  son  fils, 
menestriers  de  Paris,  et  musiciens  du  Roy;  M.  le  baron  de  1'Espinasse;  J.  de 
Cambray,  chancelier  de  Bourges,  estant  a  Constantinople,  et  tenant  le  lieu  de 
M.  Aramon;  Cle'ment  Marot,  quand  I'auteur  alloit  disner  avec  luy;  M.  du 
Parcq  [Denys  Sauvage];  Mme  la  princesse  de  Ferrare;  Francoyse  Fontaine, 
petite  fille  de  I'auteur;  M.  Saliat;  Damoiselle  Catherine  Morelet,  fille  de  M. 
de  la  Marcheferriere;  1'escuyer  Catherin  Ian;  Mme  la  duchesse  de  Vendosme; 
Francois  Ier;  Annemond  Polier;  S.  Vallambert,  poete  latin  et  francois;  le 
president  de  Gouy;  M.  de  Chantecler,  conseiller  au  Parlement  de  Paris;  M.  P. 
Coritain;  Lyon  Jamet,  seigneur  de  Chambrum,  secretaire  de  Mme  Ren6e  de 
France,  duchesse  de  Ferrare;  Jan  Girard,  de  Bourges,  et  Marguerite,  son 
espouse,  Lyonnoise;  Jan  Vasis,  diet  Jan  de  Paris;  M.  de  la  Saulx,  secretaire 
du  cardinal  de  Chastillon;  Pierre  Sceve;  Eustache  de  la  Porte;  M.  Tignac, 
lieutenant  general  et  president  a  Lyon;  M.  Brinon,  fils  unique  du  premier 
president  de  Rouen;  De  la  mort  de  M.  de  Langey;  M.  de  Cremieu,  Lyonnois; 
Henri  II;  M.  de  Saint  Antost,  premier  president  de  Rouen. 

P.  126,  quatrain,  L'auteur  au  Seigneur  Jean  Brinon. 

P.  127,  Le  livre  des  Odes,  eighteen  in  number,  eleven  of  which  are  addressed 
to  the  following  persons:  Jean  Brinon;  Flora;  le  cardinal  de  Chastillon;  MM. 
de  Querinec  et  de  Coadiunal,  gentilshommes  de  Bretaigne;  Frangoys  I'Archer; 
P.  de  la  Saulx,  secretaire  du  cardinal  de  Chastillon. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  257 

P.  163,  S'ensuil  un  lime  d'Epigrammes  pour  estreines  de  ceste  annie  1555, 
inscribed  to  the  following  persons:  Henri  II;  la  Royne;  Mme  Marguerite  de 
France;  la  duchesse  de  Vendosme;  la  princesse  de  Ferrare  et  duchesse  de 
Guise;  M.  de  1'Estoille,  president  au  Parlement  de  Paris;  M.  Tiraqueau, 
conseiller  audict  Parlement;  Eustache  de  la  Porte,  aussi  conseiller  audict 
Parlement;  M.  du  Lyon,  aussi  pareillement  conseiller;  M.  Seneton,  conseilter 
au  Parlement  de  Paris;  M.  d'Epesse,  conseiller  du  Roy  au  Parlement  de  Paris; 
M.  de  Viole,  seigneur  d'Aigremont,  aussi  conseiller  audict  Parlement;  M.  Jean 
Brinon,  conseiller  audict  Parlement;  M.  Vaillant,  aussi  conseiller  audict 
Parlement;  M.  de  Marmaigne,  maistre  des  requestes;  M.  d'Yvor,  secretaire 
du  Roy;  M.  le  seneschal  de  Lyon,  Guillaume  Gazaigne;  M.  de  Tignac,  lieu- 
tenant general,  et  president  a  Lyon;  M.  du  Puy,  lieutenant  particulier  en 
ladicte  ville;  M.  de  Vauzelle,  advocat  du  Roy  &  Lyon;  M.  Billoud,  procureur 
du  Roy  en  ladicte  ville;  M.  Bryaud,  conseiller  au  siege  presidial  de  Lyon; 
M.  de  Villas,  juge  ordinaire  de  ladicte  ville;  M.  1'advocat  Athiaud;  M.  1'advo- 
cat  Laurens;  M.  1'advocat  Thomas;  M.  Lymandas,  conseiller  au  siege  presi- 
dial de  Lyon;  les  deux  Melliers,  advocatz;  M.  Girinet,  advocat;  M.  le  sene- 
schal Guillaume  Gazaigne  et  M.  de  Beauregard,  son  frere;  le  seigneur  de 
Rivirie,  le  baron  Laurencin;  le  tresorier  Martin  de  Troye;  le  tresorier  Artus 
Prunier,  et  receveur  du  Dauphin6;  Jean  Prunier,  receveur  de  Forest;  le 
capitaine  Cervieres,  capitaine  des  enfans  de  Lyon;  le  capitaine  George  Reg- 
nart;  Nicolas  Henry,  seigneur  de  Cremieu,  Lyonnois;  le  secretaire  Jean 
Gravier;  le  chanoine  Charton,  Lyonnois;  P.  Sceve;  Maistre  Mathieu  Michel; 
Maistre  Antoine  Virieu,  enquesteur  en  la  senechauc6  de  Lyon;  le  grefier 
Vidilli;  Ennemond  Polier;  le  seigneur  Jean  Antoine  Gros;  Francoys  Santien, 
seigneur  de  Villette;  Nod  Neyret  et  Marie  Briande,  sa  femme;  Jean  de  Roche- 
fort;  les  deux  freres  Prunas,  Lyonnois;  les  deux  freres  Taillemont;  le  seigneur 
Leonard  Spine;  Alexis  Jure  de  Quiers;  le  seigneur  Sebastien  Sommage;  M. 
Clepier,  advocat;  Sebastien  Gryphius;  Guillaume  Roville,  libraire;  Benoist 
Montaudouyn,  bateur  d'or;  Thibault  Payen,  libraire;  Jean  de  Tournes,  impri- 
meur;  Philibert  Rollet,  lors  qu'il  imprimoit  le  present  livre;  Guillaume 
Phylledier,  imprimeur;  Dame  Clemence  de  Rochefort;  Anne  de  Rochefort; 
Sibylle  de  la  Porte;  Madamoyselle  Lallier;  Madamoyselle  de  la  Fay;  Jean 
Fontaine,  Francoise  Fontaine,  Charles  Fontaine,  Sebastien  Fontaine,  enfants 
de  1'auteur;  M.  Auberi,  lieutenant  civil  a  Paris;  M.  Braillon,  conseiller  au 
siege  presidial  de  Lyon;  M.  Pasquier,  advocat  au  Parlement  de  Paris;  M. 
Duarenus,  docteur,  regent  a  Bourges;  M.  le  Coigneux  [cousin  de  1'auteur], 
advocat  au  Parlement  de  Paris;  Antoine  du  Gu6  [cousin  de  1'auteur];  M.  le 
baron  de  PEspinasse;  J.  de  Cambray,  chancelier  de  Bourges,  ambassadeur  du 
Roy;  M.  Touchet,  lieutenant  i  Orleans;  Jacques  Joubert,  lieutenant  criminel 
a  Bourges;  Francois  PArcher,  procureur  des  comptes  &  Paris;  M.  Fournier, 
poete;  Jean  Gamier;  le  capitaine  Pierre  Bon;  le  contreroleur  Philippe  Cou- 
lom;  M.  de  Belle-Isle;  Guillaume  du  Louet,  seigneur  de  Querinec;  M.  Syl- 
vius, medecin  a  Paris;  M.  Fernel,  aussi  medecin  a  Paris;  Geofroy  Granger, 
medecin  &  Paris;  Guillaume  Plantius,  aussi  medecin  &  Paris;  Claude  Millet, 
medecin  i  Lyon;  Simon  Guy,  maistre  chirurgien  a  Lyon;  Marie  Buzelin; 


258  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Marie  Crabe  et  son  petit  filz  Polycarpe;  P.  de  la  Saulx;  Charles  Sevin, 
chanoine  d'Agen,  en  Agenois;  Maistre  Jehan  Ferrand  de  Clamart;  M.  de 
Sangelais;  Maurice  Sceve,  Lyonnois;  M.  du  Pare  [Denys  Sauvage],  Champe- 
nois;  P.  de  Ronsard;  Joachim  du  Bellay,  seigneur  de  Connor;  E.  Jodelle, 
Parisien;  G.  des  Autelz;  M.  de  Sainct  Romat;  E.  Forcadel;  J.  Gohorri, 
Parisien;  Ponthus  de  Thiart;  Olivier  de  Mangni;  Remi  Belleau;  Cl.  Chap- 
puy;  P.  Saliat,  qui  a  traduit  Herodote;  Jean  Dorat;  Louis  Chesneau,  lecteur 
en  hebrieu  il  Paris;  Jacques  Pelletier;  M.  Amyot;  le  seigneur  de  Balf ;  M.  de 
Bon  Repos,  M.  Lateranus;  M.  Fum6e,  grand  rapporteur  de  France;  Barto- 
lemi  Aneau;  G.  Aubert,  advocat  a  Paris;  Francois  Content;  Gilles  Bolaud; 
Marc  Roger,  mathematicien;  G.  Galterus;  le  poete  Tahureau;  Jean  Pierre  de 
Mesme;  Bonaventure  du  Tronchet;  M.  Angelus;  Jean  Otin;  Calvi  de  la 
Fontaine;  Claude  Gruget,  Parisien;  N.  Prevotet;  Francoys  du  Cler6;  Michel 
Miriti,  de  Rhodes,  estudiant  El  Pavie;  M.  de  Bievres,  gentilhomme  cham- 
panoys;  Ren£  Chandelier;  E.  Charpin. 

P.  217,  XXVIII.  Enigmes,  traduitz  des  vers  latins  de  Symposius,  ancien 
poete,  preceded  by  a  quatrain  in  honor  of  Jean  Brinon,  and  followed  by  Attire 
enigme  qui  n'est  pas  de  Symposius. 

P.  227,  Le  Passetemps  des  amis,  livre  contenant  Epilres  et  Epigrammes  en  vers 
franqois,  qu'ils  ont  enwyez  les  uns  aux  autres,  le  tout  compose  par  certains  auteurs 
modernes,  et  nouvellement  recueilli  par  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien,  auteur  d'une 
partie,  preceded  by  a  quatrain,  A  Jean  Brinon.  The  epistles  of  the  Passetemps 
des  amis  were  written  by  the  following  poets:  G.  Teshault  [Guillaume  des 
Autelz];  Jean  Orri,  advocat  en  la  ville  du  Mans;  Gabriel  Tamot,  advocat 
du  Mans ;  Jean  Dugu6,  advocat  en  Parlement  a  Paris ;  F.  P. ;  Charles 
Fontaine. 

P.  313,  S'ensuyvent  les  Epigrammes  du  livre  du  Passetemps  des  amis  escrivans 
les  uns  aux  autres,  by  the  following  authors:  D[enys]  S[auvage];  Francois 
PArcher;  Nicolle  le  Jouvre;  Michel  du  Rochay;  S.  H.;  Antoine  Pe'rard; 
Ren6  Chandelier;  J.  Morel;  Alexis  Gaudin;  V.  L.;  Antoine  de  Surie,  contre- 
roleur  de  Lixieux;  Charles  Fontaine;  Hubert  Philippe  de  Villiers;  P.  S.; 
Bonaventure  du  Tronchet.  Also  several  epigrams  addressed  by  Fontaine  to: 
Jean  Chaliart,  notaire  royal  a  Lyon;  Benoist  Troncy,  son  gendre,  aussi  de 
pareil  estat;  Jean  Bureau  [cousin  de  1'auteur];  M.  du  Val,  evesque  de  Sees; 
M.  Fornel,  conseiller  au  siege  presidial  de  Lyon;  le  receveur  Francois  Coulaud, 
Lyonnois. 

P.  345,  Traduction  en  vers  franc.oys  du  premier  livre  du  Remede  d' Amours, 
jadis  compost  en  vers  latins  par  le  poete  Ovide,  preceded  by:  two  short  pieces  in 
honor  of  Jean  Brinon;  Le  translateur  aux  lecteurs;  Preface  du  translateur  sur  le 
Premier  livre  du  Remede  d' 'Amours  d'Ovide;  Sommaire  de  la  principals  matiere 
du  present  livre.  P.  388,  four  odes,  three  of  which  are  inscribed  to  Bonaventure 
du  Tronchet,  Flora,  and  Henri  II.  P.  391,  Eclogue  marine,  ou  sont  introduilz 
deux  nautonniers,  Hugues  Salel  et  Charles  Fontaine.  P.  397,  Fin.  Fautes 
advenues  d  I'impression.  Pp.  398-399,  S'ensuit  la  Table  du  present  livre. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  259 

13.  EPITOME  DES  ||  Cinq  Liures  d'Artemidore,  ||  ancien  autheur,  &*  le 
plus  \\renome,  traitant  des  \\  Songes.  \\  Traduiz  en  Francois  par 
Charles  ||  Fontaine.  ||  Plus  vn  brief  recueil  de  Valere  Ma-  ||  xime, 
touchant  certeins  songes.  ||  A  LION  ||  PAR  IAN  DE  TOVRNES.  [[ 
M.D.LV.  1 1  Auec  Priuilege  du  Roy. 

8vo.    174  pp.  numbered,  6  ff.  unnumbered.    Sainte-Genevieve,  V  717. 

The  title  is  adorned  with  a  pretty  border. 

Reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Jean  de  Tournes  for  ten 
years,  S.  Germain  en  Laye,  le  xv.  de  luillet.  Van  de  grace  1555. 

The  first  136  pp.  are  occupied  by  the  translations  and  liminary  pieces  pub- 
lished by  Fontaine  in  the  Epitome  des  trois  limes  de  Artemidorus  (1546).  P. 
137,  epistle  A  Jean  Gravier,  secretaire  de  la  vile  de  Lyon.  P.  139,  Epitome  du 
quatrieme  lime  d'Artemidore.  P.  160,  Epitome  du  cinquieme  lime  d'Artemidore. 
P.  164,  Petit  recueil  du  lime  de  Valere  Maxime,  touchant  les  songes.  F.  17  v°, 
Table  du  recueil  de  Valere  Maxime.  F.  18  v°,  Table  des  cinq  limes  d'Artemidore. 
F.  Aj  r°  and  v°,  Errata. 

The  Epitome  des  cinq  limes  d'Artemidore  was  reprinted  at  least  four  times: 
Paris,  Guillaume  Cavellat,  1566,  i6mo;  Paris,  veuve  Jean  Bonfons,  without 
date,  i6mo;  Paris,  Marnef,  1573  (La  Croix  du  Maine,  vol.  i,  p.  108);  Lyons, 
Jean  de  Tournes,  1581,  i6mo.  Under  the  title  of  Les  Jugemens  astronomiques 
des  songes,  it  was  published  in  the  same  volume  with  Augustinus  Niphus,  des 
Augures  ou  divinations,  a  translation  by  Antoine  du  Moulin,  as  follows:  1547, 
i6mo,  mark  of  Denis  Janot  on  last  folio;  Rouen,  Thomas  Mallard,  about 
1580,  i6mo;  Rouen,  Robert  Mallard,  1584,  i6mo;  Paris,  Nicolas  Bonfons, 
1595,  i6mo;  Lyons,  Jacques  Roussin,  1596,  i2mo;  Troyes,  Nicolas  Oudot, 
1634,  i2mo;  Rouen,  Vaultier  (or  Paris,  J.  Prome),  1664,  i2mo.  Cf.  A.  Cartier 
and  A.  Cheneviere,  Antoine  du  Moulin  .  .  .,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  lid.  de  la 
France,  1896,  pp.  223-224.  Graesse  also  mentions  editions  published  at  Paris 
in  1600  and  at  Lyons  in  1609,  but  does  not  give  the  names  of  the  publishers. 

1556 

14.  LES  xxi.  EPITRES  1 1  D'OVIDE.  1 1  Les  dix  premieres  sont  traduites  par 
Charles  \\  Fontaine  Parisien:    le  reste  est  par  lui  reuti,  \\  &°  aug- 
ment^ de  Prefaces.  \  \  Les  amours  de  Mars  &  Venus,  &  de  Pluton 
vers  ||  Proserpine,  imitation  d'Homere  &  d'Ovide.  ||  A  LION,  || 

PAR    IAN    DE    TOVRNES,    ||   ET    GVIL.    GAZEAV.    ||   M.D.LVL    ||   AuCC 

Priuilege  du  Roy. 

i2mo.  455  pp.  numbered,  2  ff.  unnumbered.  Woodcuts.  Bibl.  Nat., 
Reserve  p.  Yc.  722. 

Reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight 
years,  Villiers  en  Coterets,  le  premier  iour  d'Octobre  1555.  P.  3,  dedication,  A 
noble  et  honorable  Dame,  Madame  de  Crussol,  Charles  Fontaine,  S.,  dated  Lyon, 


260  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ce  premier  iour  de  May  1556.  P.  9,  epistle,  A  Monsieur  de  Crussol,  seneschal  de 
Cahors  .  .  .,  reproduced  from  the  Epistres  d'Ovide  (1552).  P.  12,  dizain,  Au 
susdit  Seigneur  de  Crussol,  signed  Hanie  le  Francois.  Pp.  14-196,  Fontaine's 
translation  of  the  first  ten  Heroides,  with  prefaces  and  notes  by  Fontaine. 
P.  197,  Le  translateur  aus  lecteurs.  Pp.  206-426,  the  last  eleven  Heroides, 
translated  by  Octovien  de  Saint-Gelais  and  the  Seigneur  de  Saint-Romat. 
P.  353,  Museus,  ancien  poete  grec,  des  Amours  de  Leander  et  Hero,  traduit  en 
rime  }ran$oise  par  Clement  Marot  de  Cahors  en  Querci,  valet  de  chambre  du  Roy, 
signed  La  mord  n'y  mord.  P.  427,  La  Fable  des  amours  de  Mars  et  de  Venus, 
traduite  d'Homere.  P.  436,  Le  Ravissement  de  Proserpine.  Imitacion  d'Ovide. 
P.  453,  Petit  avertissement  aus  lecteurs,  par  Charles  Fontaine,  sur  son  translat  des 
dix  premieres  Epitres  d'Ovide.  P.  456,  Table  du  present  lime.  P.  458,  Fautes 
avenues  en  imprimant. 

Reprinted  at  least  three  times:  (i)  A  Paris,  Chez  Hierosme  de  Marnef, 
6*  Guillaume  Cavellat,  au  mont  S.  Hilaire  a  Venseigne  du  Pelican,  1571  (Bibl. 
Nat.,  Reserve  p.Yc.  723).  The  contents  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  1556 
edition,  with  the  following  exceptions:  the  Extrait  du  privilege  is  omitted;  the 
woodcuts  are  different.  (2)  A  Lyon,  Par  lean  de  Tournes,  1573  (Bibl.  Nat., 
Reserve  p.Yc.  1638).  The  contents  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  1571  edition, 
with  the  following  exceptions:  Le  Combat  d'Hercule  et  d'Achelois,  pris  d'Ovide 
par  I'excellent  poete  franqois  loachim  du  Bellay  is  added;  the  woodcuts  are  those 
of  the  1556  edition.  (3)  A  Paris,  Chez  Hierosme  de  Marnef,  et  la  veufve  Guil- 
laume Cavellat,  au  mont  S.  Hilaire  a  Venseigne  du  Pelican,  1580  (Bibl.  Nat., 
R6serve  p.Yc.  724).  The  contents  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  1556  edition, 
with  the  following  exceptions:  Sonnet  acrostichic,  sur  la  transmigration  des 
bonnes  lettres  d'Athenes  et  Rome  a  Paris,  es  personnes  des  Heroides  d'Ovide  is 
added;  the  woodcuts  are  those  of  the  1571  edition. 

The  three  editions  just  mentioned  are  vastly  inferior  to  the  original  edition. 
The  typography  is  very  poor. 

The  woodcuts  of  the  1571  and  of  the  1580  editions  were  probably  executed 
by  Jean  Cousin;  cf.  Ambroise  Firmin-Didot,  Etude  sur  Jean  Cousin,  Paris, 
1872,  pp.  168-169. 

J.  M.  Papillon,  Traiti  historique  et  pratique  de  la  gravure  en  bois,  Paris,  1766, 
vol.  i,  p.  204,  mentions  a  1579  edition  by  Hierosme  de  Marnef  and  the  widow 
of  Guillaume  Cavellat. 

1557 

15.  ODE  DE  ||  L'ANTIQVITE  ||  ET  EXCELLENCE  ||  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  || 
composee  ||  par  ||  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien.  \\  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  || 
PAR  IEAN  CITOYS.  ||  M.D.Lvn.  ||  Auec  Priuikge  du  Roy. 

8vo.  31  pp.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  Ye.  1751;  Bibl.  de  la  ville  de 
Lyon,  318109. 

Reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight 
years,  Vittiers  Coterets,  le  premier  iour  d'Octobre  1555.  P.  3,  huitain,  Desfor- 
teresses  de  Lyon,  signed  Hanie  le  Francois.  P.  4,  quatrain,  L'auteur  a  sa  Muse. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  261 

P.  5,  VAnliquile  el  Excellence  de  la  ville  de  Lyon.   P.  20,  quatrain,  Sur  le  Irespas 
de  Sebastien  Gryphe,  imprimeur  et  libraire  de  Lyon. 

P.  21,  Epigrammes,  addressed  to  the  following  persons:  le  seneschal  de 
Lyon,  Guillaume  Gazagne;  le  lieutenant  civil  [Jehan  du  Fournel];  le  lieute- 
nant criminel  [Nery  de  Tourve'on];  le  lieutenant  Bryau;  1'advocat  du  Roy 
[Mathieu  de  Vauzelles];  le  procureur  du  Roy  [Nicolas  Baronnat  ?];  M.  du 
Puy;  le  conseiller  Limandas;  le  juge  de  Villars;  le  lieutenant  Mellier;  lejuge 
Girinet;  1'advocat  Athiaud;  1'advocat  Laurens;  M.  et  Mme  de  Cheurieres; 
Claude  Laurencin,  seigneur  de  Rivirie;  M.  de  Saint  Irigni,  son  filz;  les  deux 
Groliers,  1'un  secretaire  du  Roy,  et  1'autre  tresorier;  Jean  Camus,  secretaire 
du  Roy;  Pierre  Sceve,  eschevin;  le  general  Imbert  Faure;  Nicolas  Perret, 
eschevin;  Girardin  Pance,  eschevin  de  la  ville  de  Lyon;  Francois  Delbene; 
M.  Antoine  Galand,  precepteur  dudit  Francois  Delbene;  Jules  Spine;  Maltre 
Matthieu  Michel;  Boissiere,  ami  de  1'auteur;  Jacques  Page.  Immediately 
following  the  Epigrammes  are  the  following  pieces  addressed  to  Fontaine: 
Response  par  ledit  Jacques  [Page];  De  Foniano  fonte,  Martialis  Chassagnoni 
distichon;  Eiusdem  alterum  distichon  in  Zotlum;  Cl.  Gallandii,  in  Caroli  Fon- 
tani  Poelae  laudem,  carmen  hexamelrum  (with  translation  into  French);  a 
Latin  poem  by  Martial  Chassagnon  (with  translation  into  French). 
The  Ode  was  composed  in  1556,  as  is  shown  by  the  last  stanza: 

Fait  en  1'an  des  grandes  chaleurs, 

Durans  cinq  moys  sans  grandes  pluyes: 

Juillet  rendit  les  raisins  meurs, 

Et  Aoust  vendanges  accomplies. 

Concerning  the  drought  of  1556,  see  A.  P6ricaud,  Notes  el  documents  pour 
servir  a  Vhisloire  de  Lyon,  Lyons,  1838,  p.  25. 

The  Ode  de  I'antiquil6  et  excellence  de  la  ville  de  Lyon  is  the  only  volume  by 
Fontaine  that  has  been  reprinted  since  1664.  An  exact  reproduction  of  the 
original  edition,  with  preface  and  notes  by  William  Poidebard,  and  a  summary 
of  the  greater  part  of  Fontaine's  works  by  L6on  Galle,  was  published  at  Lyons 
in  1889  by  Mougin-Rusand,  at  the  expense  of  the  Sotitli  des  bibliophiles 
lyonnais. 

16.  ODES,  ENIGMES,  ||  ET  EPIGRAM-  ||  MES,  ||  Adressez  pour  etreines, 
au  Roy,  a  la  1 1  Royne,  a  Madame  Marguerite,  &  au-  1 1  tres  Princes 
&  Princesses  de  France.  ||  Par  Charles  Fontaine  Parisien.\\ 
[Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  ||  PAR  IEAN  CITOYS.  ||  M.D.LVII.  ||  Auec  Priuilege 
du  Roy. 

8vo.  in  pp.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  Ye.  1681  bis;  Arsenal,  B.L. 
8868;  Bibl.  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  318110. 

Title  reproduced  by  Baudrier,  Bibl.  lyon.,  2e  s£rie,  p.  28.  Reverse  of  title, 
Exlrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight  years,  Villiers 
Coterets,  le  premier  iour  d'Octobre  1555.  P.  3,  quatrain,  Accointance  de  Phebus 
avec  Vauleur;  Latin  distich,  Amid  carmen  in  hunc  Caroli  Fontani  libellum. 
P.  4,  quatrain,  Au  Roy. 


262  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Pp.  5-33,  fifteen  odes,  addressed  to  the  following  persons:  Henri  II;  la 
Royne;  Mme  Marguerite,  duchesse  de  Bern,  soeur  du  Roy;  Mgr  d'Anguyen; 
le  cardinal  de  Lorraine;  le  connestable  et  ducde  Montmoranci;  le  cardinal  de 
Chastillon;  Monseigneur  Durfe",  chevalier  de  1'ordre,  et  gouverneur  de  Mgr  le 
Dauphin;  M.  de  Crussol,  comte  de  Tonerre;  M.  de  Saint-Gelais;  M.  Dane- 
sius,  precepteur  des  enfants  du  Roy;  Pierre  Paschal,  croniqueur  du  Roy. 

P.  34,  epigram,  A  tresillustres  Princes  et  Princesses,  Messeigneurs  les  enfans 
du  Roy.  P.  35,  S'ensuivent  trente  et  un  enigmes.  ...  P.  42,  epigram,  Au  Roy. 

P.  43,  Etreines  aux  plus  grans  Princes  de  France,  addressed  to  the  following 
persons:  Henri  II;  le  Dauphin;  le  due  d'Or!6ans;  le  cardinal  de  Bourbon;  le 
cardinal  de  Vendome;  le  roy  de  Navarre;  M.  d'Anguyen;  le  prince  de  Conde"; 
le  prince  de  la  Rochesurion;  M.  de  Montpensier;  M.  de  Nevers;  le  due  de 
Lorraine;  M.  de  Nemours;  le  cardinal  de  Lorraine;  le  cardinal  de  Guise;  les 
dues  de  Guise  et  d'Aumale,  freres;  le  cardinal  de  Ferrare;  le  prince  de  Fer- 
rare;  le  cardinal  de  Chastillon;  le  mar6chal  de  Saint- Andre";  le  mare'chal  de 
Sedan;  le  mare'chal  de  Brissac;  le  mare'chal  Pierre  Strose;  les  cardinaux  de 
Tournon,  de  Lixieux,  de  Meudon,  de  Lenoncourt,  de  Givry,  d'Armagnac,  du 
Bellay,  d'Anebault;  M.  Bertrandi;  M.  d'Avanson,  president  au  conseil  du 
Roy;  M.  de  1'Hospital,  maistre  des  requestes  chez  le  Roy;  le  vidame  de 
Chartres;  M.  de  Saint-Gelais;  M.  Lancelot  Carles,  evesque  de  Rhiez;  Mgr 
Durfe";  le  grand  rapporteur  Fume'e;  M.  de  Termes;  le  comte  de  Tonerre, 
seigneur  de  Crussol;  les  freres  dudit  seigneur  de  Crussol,  ayans  Saliat  pour 
precepteur;  le  comte  de  Tande,  gouverneur  pour  le  Roy  en  Provence;  le  baron 
de  la  Garde;  le  capitaine  Pierre  Bon. 

P.  57,  Etreines  aux  Princesses  de  France,  addressed  to  the  following  persons: 
la  Royne;  la  royne  d'Escosse;  Mme  Marguerite;  la  royne  de  Navarre;  Mme 
de  Montpensier;  Mme  Rene"e  de  France,  duchesse  de  Ferrare;  la  duchesse  de 
Touteville,  et  comtesse  de  Saint-Pol;  Mme  de  Nevers;  Mme  la  duchesse  de 
Guise;  Mme  la  duchesse  de  Valentinois,  Diane  de  Poitiers;  Mme  de  Crussol, 
comtesse  de  Reindgrave;  Mme  la  comtesse  de  Tonerre;  Joachim  du  Bellay, 
Pierre  de  Ronsard,  Estienne  Jodelle,  Balf,  et  Olivier  de  Maigni,  poetes;  M.  de 
Cheuriere;  M.  de  Pollienay;  M.  de  Tyart;  M.  de  PAube"pine,  tre"sorier  de 
Pespargne;  Jacques  de  Cambray,  conseiller  et  aumonier  du  Roy,  chancelier  de 
Bourges,  et  ambassadeur  en  Transylvanie;  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  poete; 
Remi  Belleau,  poete;  Pierre  de  Ronsard,  poete  du  Roy;  Jean  Dorat,  lecteur  du 
Roy  en  rUniversite"  de  Paris;  M.  du  Parq  [Denys  Sauvage],  historiographe  du 
Roy;  Claude  Laurencin,  seigneur  de  Rivirie;  M.  le  lieutenant  Bryau;  le 
chanoine  Gauteret;  1'ecuyer  Caterin  Jean;  le  receveur  Frangois  Coulaud; 
Jean  Seneton  et  Jean  de  Rochefort;  M.  de  Yens;  Jean  le  Jeune;  Marie  Bour- 
geoise,  petite  fille  de  cinq  ans;  Pierre  Saliat;  Jean  Fournaud;  J.  Gohorri  et" 
Cl.  Gruget,  Parisiens;  Alexis  Gaudin,  medecin  a  Blois;  George  de  la  Boutiere; 
Jean  Citoys;  Jacques  Pelletier;  M.  Philander;  Louis  des  Masures;  De  la 
mart  de  Jean  Prunier,  receveur  de  Lyonnais  et  Forest;  le  lieutenant  Touchet, 
d'Orleans;  le  secretaire  Gravier;  Rene"  Chandelier;  Francois  1'Archer;  M.  de 
la  Source,  receveur  de  Lyonnais;  MM.  Fernel,  Granger,  Planson,  medecins  a 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  263 

Paris;  Pontus  de  Tyart,  Maurice  Sceve,  et  Guillaume  des  Autelz;  M.  de 
Jugerie,  medecin  de  M.  le  cardinal  de  Lorraine;  le  protonotaire  de  la  Saulx; 
Charles  de  la  Porte;  Barthelemi  Teste;  le  tresorier  Ferrier;  le  seigneur  de 
Villette;  Jacques  Dalechamps,  medecin;  Jean  de  Sylva,  medecin;  M.  Chas- 
sagnon;  Antoine  P6rard;  Jean  Fontaine  et  Jacques  Fontaine,  filz  de  1'auteur; 
Pierre  Voeriot,  lorsqu'il  pourtrayoit  1'auteur. 

Among  the  Elreines  are  pieces  addressed  to  Fontaine  by  Bonaventure  du 
Tronchet,  Louis  des  Masures,  Antoine  PSrard,  Jean  Fournaud,  Martial 
Chassagnon,  and  Jean  Citoys. 

P.  104,  Odelette,  signed  Hante  le  Francois.  P.  105,  Exhortation  d  Messieurs 
de  la  Justice  et  du  Consulat  de  la  ville  de  Lion,  pour  le  bien  et  honneur,  augmenta- 
tion et  conservation  d'icelle.  Ode.  P.  in,  Fin. 

17.  LES  ||  DICTS  DES  SEPT  ||  SAGES,  \\  Ensemble  \\  Plusieurs  autres 
sentences  Latines,  ex-  \\  traites  de  diuers,  bans,  6°  anciens  \\  Auteurs, 
auec  leur  exposition  \  \  Francoise,  \  \  Par  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien. 
||  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  \\  PAR  IEAN  CITOYS.  ||  M.D.LVII.  ||  Auec  Priui- 
lege  du  Roy. 

8vo.  79  pp.  numbered.  Arsenal,  B.L.  20096;  Mazarine,  21720;  Bibl.  de 
la  ville  de  Lyon,  318108;  Harvard  Library,  L  120. 

Reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight 
years,  Villiers  Coterets,  le  premier  iour  d'Oclobre  1555.  P.  3,  dedication,  A 
tresnoble  et  tresflorissant  Prince,  Monseigneur  le  due  d'Orleans,  Charles  Fontaine, 
humble  salut,  dated  Lyon,  le  xxv  de  Novembre  1556.  P.  8,  huitain  inscribed  to 
the  Duke  of  Orleans. 

P.  9,  Les  mots  dor  is  ou  preceptes  des  sept  Sages:  n  dicta  by  Thales,  12 
by  Solon,  12  by  Chilo,  24  by  Pittacus,  7  by  Bias,  21  by  Cleobulus.  P.  22, 
Les  sentences  de  Periander  .  .  .,  68  in  number.  P.  33,  A  Periander  aucuns 
attribuent  encores  ces  sentences,  n  in  number. 

P.  35,  Autres  sentences  et  mots  dorez  au  nombre  de  150.  Recueillis  de  divers 
auteurs,  avec  leurs  noms  (au  mains  pour  une  grande  partie)  et  de  diverse  matiere, 
selon  que  je  les  ay  rencontrez  et  extraits  par  longue  lecture.  The  following  an- 
cients are  quoted:  Aristippus,  Theophrastus,  Antisthenes,  Aristotle,  Diog- 
enes, Socrates,  Crates,  Zeno,  Themistocles,  Pericles,  Lamachus,  Iphicrates, 
M.  Curius,  Musonius,  Cato  the  elder,  Anacharsis,  Propertius,  Ovid,  Solon, 
Scipio  Africanus,  Athenodorus,  Juvenal,  Lysander,  Epicurus,  Posidonius, 
Gordian  the  younger,  Euripides,  Theognis,  Alcibiades,  Diodorus,  Menander, 
Bion,  Diphilus,  Archytas,  Diocletian,  Thales,  Antoninus  Pius,  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  Hannibal,  Xenocrates,  Simonides,  Pittacus,  Bias,  Titus,  Tiberius, 
Caecilius  Metellus,  Horace,  Cicero,  and  Agasicles. 

P.  72,  Preceptes  de  la  sante,  prins  de  Vescole  de  medecine  de  Salerne,  escrivant 
au  Roy  d'Angleterre;  De  VergUe  cinq  sentences.  P.  77,  Sept  vers  du  poete 
Ausone  sur  sept  sentences  des  sept  Sages.  P.  79,  four  Enigmes,  signed  Hante  le 
Franqoys. 


264  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1 8.  MIMES  ||  DE  PVBLIAN,  \\Ce  sont  certains  Diets  grams  &•  sen-  \\ 
tencieux,  mis  de  Latin  en  Francois,  \\  et  accordes  auec  plusieurs 
bons  ||  Auteurs:  \\  Ensemble  ||  Douze  Paraboles,  &•  six  Enigmes:  \\ 
Par  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien.  \\  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  ||  PAR  IEAN 
CITOYS,  ||  M.D.L.vn.||^4«ec  Priuilege  du  Roy. 

8vo.  in  pp.  numbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  R.  2043;  Arsenal,  B.L.  1568; 
Bibl.  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  318107. 

Reverse  of  title,  Exlrail  du  privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight 
years,  Villiers  Coterets,  le  premier  iour  d'Octobre  1555.  P.  3,  dedication,  A 
treshaut,  tresillustre,  et  tresflorissant  Prince  Monseigneur  le  Daufin,  dated  Lyon, 
ce  dixieme  Decembre  1556.  P.  9,  Les  Mimes  de  Publian,  en  Latin  et  Francoys, 
mis  par  ordre  de  I'alphabet.  ...  P.  105,  Douze  paraboles,  ou  similitudes,  en 
Latin  et  en  Francoys.  P.  in,  six  Enigmes. 

Concerning  translations  of  the  "  sentences  "  of  Publilius  Syrus  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  Goujet  says  (Bibl.  franc..,  vol.  v,  p.  43):  "  La  Croix  du 
Maine  et  Du  Verdier,  dans  leurs  bibliotheques,  parlent  d'une  d'elles:  c'est 
celle  de  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien,  qui  fut  imprimSe  a  Lyon  en  1557,  in-8°. 
II  y  en  avoit  eu  une  autre  plus  ancienne,  imprime'e  aussi  a  Lyon,  chez  Benolt 
Rigaut,  en  1538,  et  dont  on  fit  une  nouvelle  Edition  a  Paris  en  1561.  Le  tra- 
ducteur  ne  s'est  d6sign6  que  par  ces  quatre  lettres  initiates  J.  D.  S.  M.  La 
Croix  du  Maine  n'a  point  connu  cette  Edition  de  1538.  La  m6me  ann6e  1561 
on  vit  encore  paroltre  les  Sentences  de  Publius  Syrus  en  francois.  Mais  ce 
n'est  qu'une  nouvelle  edition  de  la  version  de  Charles  Fontaine.  Du  Verdier, 
qui  1'attribue  &  un  autre,  a  6t6  tromp€  par  les  lettres  Ch.  P.,  par  ou  Ton  a 
voulu  designer  le  traducteur."  Since  Benoit  Rigaud  did  not  enter  the  book 
trade  until  about  1555,  he  could  not  have  published  an  edition  of  Publilius 
Syrus  in  1538.  I  know  nothing  of  a  1561  edition  of  Fontaine's  translation  of 
the  Mimes  de  Publian. 

1558 

19.  LES  1 1  SENTENCES  1 1  Du  poete  Ausone,  sur  les  1 1  Dits  des  sept 
Sages.  1 1  Odes,  &  autres  compositions,  1 1  pour  inciter  a  la  Vertu.  1 1 
Le  tout  nouuellement  traduit  1 1  &  compose  pour  1'vtilite  d'un  1 1 
chacun,  par  M.   Charles  Fontaine  ||  Parisien.  ||  A  LYON,  ||  Par 
lean  Brotot.  ||  Auec  Priuilege  du  Roy.  \\  [At  the  end:]  A  LYON,  || 
1558. 

i6mo.    79  pp.  numbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Yc.  1603. 

The  title  is  surrounded  by  an  elaborate  border.  Reverse  of  title,  Extrait  du 
Privilege  granted  to  Charles  Fontaine  for  eight  years,  Villiers  Coteretz,  le 
premier  iour  d'Octobre  1555.  P.  3,  dedication,  A  .  .  .  Monseigneur  le  due 
d'Angoulesme,  tiers  filz  du  Roy,  dated  Lyon,  ce  premier  iour  du  mays  de  May 
1558.  P.  5,  Sentences  des  sept  Sages  de  Grece,  nouvellement  traduites  des  vers 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  265 

latins  d'Ausone  en  vers  franQois  par  M.  Charles  Fontaine;  et  ha  chacun  des  sept 
Sages  six  sentences.  P.  34,  epigram  in  honor  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  P.  35,  Les 
dix  commandemens  de  la  lay  de  Dieu  donnee  a  Mtfse,  escrite  es  deux  tables,  mis 
en  vers  franQois  pour  instruction  aux  enfans,  et  pour  les  mieux  retenir  en  memoire. 
P.  37,  S'ensuit  la  benedicite  et  graces,  pour  les  enfans;  also  two  prayers  for 
evening  and  morning.  P.  40,  S'ensuivent  plusieurs  Odes  pour  la  vertu.  Of  these 
odes,  fourteen  in  number,  eight  are  addressed  to  the  following  persons:  Jean 
and  Charles  Fontaine,  sons  of  the  author;  le  general  Imbert  Faure;  Flora, 
wife  of  the  author;  le  seigneur  du  Parq  [Denys  Sauvage],  historiographe  du 
Roy;  le  secretaire  Jean  Gravier.  P.  78,  Ad  laudatissimae  indolis  generosissimi 
Francorum  regis  Henrici  II.  quatuor  filios  Martialis  Cassagno.  P.  79,  Fin. 
Faultes  advenues  en  Vimpression. 

1559 

20.  "  La  description  des  terres  trouvees  de  nostre  temps,  avec  le  sommaire 
de  plusieurs  belles  antiquitez,  contenant  une  partie  de  I 'excellence  et 
magnificence  des  richesses,  triumphes  et  largesses  des  anciens. 
Lyon,  Benoist  Rigaud,  1559.  [At  the  end:]  Imprime  par  Jean 
Pullon  dit  de  Trin.  In-i6  de  40  ff.  Ce  petit  livre  commence 
par  une  epitre  de  Charles  Fontaine  a  M.  d'lvan  [read  d'lvor].  Ce 
doit  etre  un  extrait  de  1'ouvrage  Les  Nouvelles  et  antiques  mer- 
veilles,  dont  on  aura  deguise  le  titre.  La  partie  intitulee  Le  Som- 
maire du  livre  des  nouvelles  isles  (d'Amerique)  n'y  occupe  que 
10  ff." 

Brunet,  Manuel,  vol.  ii,  col.  1327. 

Harrisse  (Bibliotheca  Americana  Vetustissima,  p.  15),  in  a  consideration  of 
Leander  de  Cosco's  barbarous  Latin  translation  of  Columbus's  letter  to 
Raphael  Sanchez  or  Sanxis,  says:  "  A  German  translation  was  printed  as 
early  as  1497,  whilst,  according  to  Tross,  one  [sic]  Charles  Fontaine  dedicated 
to  '  M.  d'lvor,  secretaire  du  Roy,'  a  French  version,  which  was  published  at 
Lyons  by  Rigaud,  in  1559,  i6mo,  under  the  title  of  '  La  Description  des  terres 
trouve"es  de  nostre  temps.'  " 

Brunet  and  Tross  cannot  both  be  right.  The  Description  .  .  .,  which 
Brunet  says  must  be  an  extract  from  the  Nouvelles  et  antiques  meneilles,  can 
have  no  connection  with  Columbus's  letter  to  Sanchez,  since  the  Nouvelles  et 
antiques  meneilles  has  no  connection  with  the  letter.  Brunet's  explanation  is 
clearly  the  correct  one.  The  title  of  the  Description  .  .  .,  the  mention  of  the 
Sommaire  du  livre  des  nouvelles  isles,  and  the  fact  that  the  dedication  was 
addressed  to  "  M.  d'lvor,  secretaire  du  Roy,"  seem  to  show  that  the  work  was 
a  reprint  of  a  portion  of  the  Nouvelles  et  antiques  meneilles. 

The  British  Museum  contains  a  copy  of  the  Description  .  .  .,  which,  on 
account  of  the  European  War,  I  have  been  unable  to  examine. 


266  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1564 

21.  SALVTATION  ||  AV  ROY,  CHARLES  ix.  ||  Sus  son  entree  en  sa  Noble 
&  ||  Antique  Ville  de  Lyon.  ||  Par  Charles  Fontaine,  Parisien.  || 
[Mark  of  Rigaud.]  1  1  louxte  1'impression  faicte  a  Lyon,  1  1  Par 
Benoist  Rigaud,  1  1  AVEC  PERMISSION.  1  1  [At  the  end:]  Fin  de  la 
salutation  au  Roy,  sus  son  Entree  en  sa  noble  \  \  &•  antique  mile  de 
Lyon,  faicte  le  xiij.  luin,  M.  d.  Ixiiij.  \  \  On  les  vend  a  Paris,  par 
Guillaume  de  Nyverd.  ||  [Mark  of  Nyverd]. 

Small  8vo.  8  ff.  unnumbered.  Signatures  A-B  threes.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Ye. 
55576  and  Reserve  Ye.  4014. 

Reverse  of  title,  a  woodcut  reproduced  by  Baudrier,  Bibl.  lyon.,  3°  se'rie, 
p.  466,  no.  57,  and  a  quatrain  in  honor  of  Charles  IX.  Fol.  2  r°,  Salutation  d 
treschreslien  et  tresbening  Roy  de  France,  Charles  IX.  Sus  son  entrte,  etc.  Fol. 
8  v°,  blank. 

I  have  been  unable  to  find  a  copy  of  the  edition  of  the  Salutation  published 
by  Benoist  Rigaud,  from  which  Guillaume  de  Nyverd  made  his  Paris  edition. 

B.  MINOR  VERSE  BY  CHARLES  FONTAINE 

PUBLISHED  IN  THE  WORKS  OF  CONTEM- 

PORARY AUTHORS  (Cf.  A,  nos.  2,  3) 


1.  NlCOLAI  ||  BORBONII    VAN  ||  DOPERANI    LIN-  ||  GONENSIS    NVGA-  || 
RVM  LIBRI  ||  OCTO.  ||  AB  AVTORE  RECENS  AVCTI  ||  ET  RECOGNITA  jj 

Cum  Indice.  ||  [Mark.]  ||  APVD  SEB.  GRYPHTVM  ||  LVGDVNI,  ||  1538. 
8vo.    504  pp.  numbered,  28  ff.  unnumbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Yc. 

1035- 

P.  14,  Latin  distich  by  Charles  Fontaine. 

2.  GlLBERTI  ||  DVCHERII   WL  ||  TONIS   AQVAPER-  ||  SANI   EPIGRAMMA- 
TON   LIBRI  ||  DVO.  ||  [Mark.]  ||  APVD    SEB.    GRYPHTVM  ||  LVGDVNI,  || 

1538. 

8vo.    167  pp.  numbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Yc.  1237. 
P.  158,  Latin  quatrain  by  Charles  Fontaine,  Ad  lectorem. 

3.  lOAN.      WLTEII  ||  RHEMI  INSCRIPTIONVM  ||  LIBRI   DVO.  ||  AD   AEGI- 

DIVM  BOHERVM  ||  Archid.  Rhem.  et  Auen.  \\  AD  BARPT.  CASTELLA- 
NVM  ||  Nicaeum  Xeniorum  libellus.  \\  [Mark.]  ||  APVD   SIM.  COLI- 

NAEVM.  ||  1538. 

i6mo.    48  ff  .    Bibl.  Nat.,  Yc.  8752. 

P.  20,  Latin  quatrain,  Ad  Vulteium  Carolus  Fontanus  Parisiensis. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  267 

1550 

4.  LES  ||  OEWRES   DE  ||  CLEMENT    MAROT,  ||  DE    CAHORS,    VAL-  ||  LET 
DE  CHAM-  ||  BRE  DV  ROY.  ||  REVEVES  ET  AVGMEN-  \\  TEES  DE  NOV-  || 

VEAV.  ||  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  \\  CHEZ  GVILLAVME  \\  Rouille  d  I'Escu  de 
Venise.  \\  1550. 

i6mo,  in  two  parts.  First  part,  592  pp.  numbered.  Second  part,  320  pp. 
numbered,  8  ff.  unnumbered.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  p.  Yc.  162. 

Reverse  of  title,  huitain  by  Charles  Fontaine,  A  la  louange  des  ceuvres  de 
Clement  Marot,  signed  Hante  le  Francois.  P.  3,  Aux  lecteurs  salut,  notice  by 
Roville. 

Concerning  Fontaine's  part  in  the  preparation  of  this  edition  of  Marot's 
works,  see  pp.  136  ff.,  above. 

Reprinted  at  least  six  times  by  Roville:  1551, 1553,  1554,  1557,  1558,  1561. 

5.  REPOS   DE||PLVS   GRAND  ||  TRAVAIL.  ||  [Mark.]  ||  A   LYON,  ||  PAR 

IEAN  DE  TOVRNES,  1 1  ET  GVIL.  GAZEAV.  1 1  M.D.XXXXX. 

8vo.     141  pp.  numbered.     Bibl.  Nat.,  Reserve  Ye.  1406. 

A  collection  of  epigrams,  sonnets,  odes,  and  moral  dialogues,  by  Guillaume 
des  Autelz. 

P.  7,  quatrain,  C.  Fonteine  a  la  Sainte  de  I'autheur.  The  Amoureux  Repos 
de  Guillaume  des  Autelz,  Lyons,  Jean  Temporal,  1553,  reverse  of  title  and 
fol.  a  2  r°,  contains  likenesses  of  Des  Autelz  and  his  Sainte,  aged  twenty-four 
and  twenty  years  respectively  (reproduced  by  Baudrier,  Bibl.  lyon.,  4°  se'rie, 
p.  380). 

P.  17,  huitain  by  Des  Autelz,  A  M.  Charles  Fontaine,  centre  un  envieux. 
Cf.  p.  154,  above.  In  the  Repos  de  plus  grand  travail,  Des  Autelz  also  ad- 
dresses verses  to  the  following  friends  of  Fontaine:  Maurice  Sceve,  Pontus  de 
Tyard,  Mellin  de  Saint-Gelais,  Denys  Sauvage,  and  Antoine  du  Moulin. 

1556 

6.  DISCOVRS||DV    TEMPS,  ||  DE    L'AN,  1 1  ET  1 1  DE    SES    PARTIES.  ||  A 
LION  ||  PAR  IAN  DE  TOVRNES.  ||  M.D.LVI. 

8vo.    81  pp.  numbered,  3  ff.  unnumbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  V.  29214. 

This  work,  by  Pontus  de  Tyard,  contains  a  dizain  A  I'Auteur,  el  Lecteur, 
Charles  Fontaine  (fol.  A  4  r°) ;  also  a  short  poem  addressed  to  Tyard  by  Fon- 
taine's friend  Philibert  Bugnon,  of  Macon. 

1557 

7.  EROTASMES  \\  DE  PHIDIE  ||  ET  GELASINE.  ||  PLVS,  ||  Le  chant  Pane- 
gyrique  de  File  Ponti-  ||  ne:  auec  la  gayete  de  May.  ||  [Mark.]  || 
A  LYON,  1 1  Par  lean  Temporal.  1 1  1557.  \  \  AVEC  PRIVILEGE. 

8vo.     128  pp.  numbered.    Bibl.  Nat.,  Ye.  7349. 


268  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Erotasmes,  by  Philibert  Bugnon,  is  composed  of  114  sonnets,  a  number 
of  epigrams,  rondeaux,  chants,  and  sixains  in  honor  of  Gelasine,  Bugnon's  love, 
and  several  poems  inscribed  to  Bugnon  by  his  friends.  P.  106,  Charles  Fon- 
taine a  I'honneur  de  Vauteur,  huitain,  signed  Hante  le  Francois. 

1558 

8.  EDICT  ||  DV  ROY  ||  HENRY  n.  ||  SVR  LES  MARIAGES  ||  CLANDESTINS  || 

CON-  ||  TRACTEZ  PAR  LES  ||  ENFANS  DE  FAMILLE,  ||  sans  le  VOllloir 

&  consen- 1|  tement  de  leurs  pe-  ||  re  &  mere:  ||  COMMENTS  ||  En 
declaration  Panegyrique,  par  M.  Guillaume  \  \  Mellier,  Docteur  es 
Droits,  ||  6*  Aduocat  es  \\  cours  de  Lyon.  \\  [Mark.]  ||  A  LYON,  ||  PAR 
DEAN  TEMPORAL.  ||  Auec  Priuilege.  ||  1558.  ||  [At  the  end:]  IM- 

PRIME  A  LYON,  ||  PAR  NIC.  EDOARD,  ||  CHAMPENOIS,  ||  1558. 

8vo.  170  pp.  numbered,  3  ff.  unnumbered,  the  last  2  blank.  Bibl.  Nat., 
F.  39845- 

Edition  divided  between  Jean  Temporal  and  Thibaud  Dormand. 

Reverse  of  title,  quatrain,  A  I'honneur  de  ce  discours  de  maitre  Guillaume 
Mellier,  sur  V Edict  du  Roy,  signed  Hante  le  Francois. 

C.    MANUSCRIPTS 

ABOUT   1540 

i.   Le  Premier  livre  de  la  predestination  des  sainctz,  compose  par  sainct 
Augustin. 

83  ff.  numbered.  260  X  175  millimeters.  20  lines  to  the  page.  Bound  in 
brown  calf.  Bibl.  Nat.,  Manuscrits  francais,  13201. 

F.  i  r°,  dedication,  A  Treshault,  Tresinvaincu,  et  Treschrestien  Roy  de  France, 
Francois,  premier  de  ce  nom,  Charles  Fontaine,  son  treshumble  subiect,  foelicite 
perpetuelle.  F.  10  v°  blank.  F.  n  r°,  Le  Premier  Ivore  de  la  predestination  des 
sainctz.  ...  F.  83  v°,  Fin. 

With  the  exception  of  the  letter  to  Jean  de  Morel,  this  manuscript  is  the 
only  specimen  of  Fontaine's  chirography  extant.  The  manuscript  was  care- 
fully prepared  and  was  beautifully  written.  The  pages  are  adorned  with 
borders  in  red  ink.  The  text  is  in  black  ink.  In  order  to  space  the  lines 
exactly,  the  author  ruled  the  paper  with  a  dull  instrument,  the  marks  of  which 
are  plainly  visible.  Marginal  notes  in  red  and  black  ink:  references  to  the 
Bible  and  to  the  works  of  Saint  Augustine.  Capital  letters  throughout  colored 
yellow.  The  C  of  Considerant,  beginning  of  dedication,  and  the  N  of  Nous, 
beginning  of  translation,  illuminated. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  269 

IS50 

2.  Autograph  letter,  written  by  Charles  Fontaine  to  Jean  de  Morel; 
first  published  by  Pierre  de  Nolhac  in  Lettres  de  Joachim  du  Bellay, 
Paris,  1883,  pp.  86-95. 

Bibl.  Nat.,  Fonds  lat.,  8489,  S.  61-68. 

In  this  letter  Fontaine  denied  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  Quintil  Horatian, 
and  attributed  it  to  his  friend  Barthelemy  Aneau,  principal  of  the  College  de 
la  Trinity  at  Lyons.  The  letter  is  dated  Lyon,  ce  viij  april  [1550]. 


D.    LOST  WORKS  AND  DOUBTFUL 
ATTRIBUTIONS 

1554 

1.  "  Plusieurs  Odes  &  autres  Poesies  dudit  Fontaine,  imprimees  a 
Paris  par  Vincent  Sertenas,  Tan  1554." 

La  Croix  du  Maine,  Rigoley  de  Juvigny  edition,  vol.  i,  p.  108. 

No  other  bibliographer  mentions  this  work.    I  have  been  unable  to  find  it. 

1555 

2.  A.  Cartier  (Les  Poetes  de  Louise  Lobe,  in  the  Revue  d'Hist.  Hit.  de  la 
France,  1894,  pp.  439-440)  conjectures  that  Fontaine  was  the 
author  of  some  of  the  verses  published  anonymously  in  the 
Enures  de  Lomze  Lobe,  Lionnoize,  Lyons,  1555. 

1580 

3.  In  an  edition  of  Fontaine's  XXI  Epttres  d'Ovide  published  at 
Paris  in  1580,  there  appeared  a  poem,  Sonnet  acrostichic  sur  la 
transmigration  des  bonnes  lettres  d'Athenes  et  Rome  a  Paris,  &s  per- 
sonnes  des  Hero'ides  d'Ovide,  which  is  not  found  in  the  three 
previous  editions.    The  authorship  of  this  poem  is  uncertain. 

WITHOUT  DATE 

4.  In  the  dedication  of  the  Epitome  des  trois  premiers  limes  de  Artemi- 
dorus  (1546),  Fontaine  mentions  a  lost  work:  "  mon  Translat  de 
Duel,  autrement  Combat,  que  je  fey  ...  a  Thurin."    La  Croix 
du  Maine  (vol.  i,  p.  108)  mentions  the  Translat  de  Duel. 

5.  In  the  same  dedication  Fontaine  refers  to  another  lost  translation: 
Translat  de  la  Chiromance. 


270  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

6.  An  unidentified  translation  presented  by  Fontaine  to  Francis  I. 
Cf.  p.  44,  above. 

7.  La  Croix  du  Maine  (vol.  i,  p.  108)  says:  .  .  .  "  il  [Fontaine]  a 
truduit  le  nouveau  Tristan."    Colletet  (Vies  des  poetes  franqois, 
fol.  193)  makes  the  same  statement,  and  adds  that  the  translation 
was  never  published. 

E.    FORMERLY  ATTRIBUTED  TO  CHARLES 
FONTAINE 


ART  POETIQVE  ||  Francois,  pour  1'instruction  des  ieu-  1|  nes 
studieus,  &  encor  peu  auan-  1  1  cez  en  la  Poesie  Fran-  1  1  coise.  1  1 
AVEC  LE  QVINTIL  \\  Horatian  sur  la  defence  &*  ||  illustration  de  la 
Ian-  1|  gue  francoise.  \\  [Mark].  ||  A  LYON,  ||  Par  lean  Temporal. 
II  1551  [i55o  n.  s.] 

i6mo.  2  ff.  unnumbered,  252  pp.  numbered,  and  8  ff.  unnumbered,  the 
last  folio  blank.  Roanne,  385  Cab. 

Second  edition  of  the  Art  poelique  of  Thomas  Sibilet.  Pp.  160-252,  first 
edition  of  the  Quintil  Horatian,  long  attributed  to  Charles  Fontaine,  but  now 
generally  attributed  to  Barth61emy  Aneau.  Reprinted  several  times. 

In  1556  Thibaud  Payen,  of  Lyons,  published  an  edition  of  the  Art  poetique 
fran$ois  which  contains  an  abridgment  of  Sibilet's  work,  Autre  art  pottique 
reduit  en  bonne  methode.  Goujet  attributes  this  abridgment  to  Charles  Fon- 
taine. After  comparison,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Sibilet  himself  made 
the  abridgment. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


This  Index  does  not  extend  to  the  Appendix  or  to  the  Bibliography. 


Aigueperse,  61. 

Ainay,  Saint-Martin  d',  66. 

Alaigre,  Antoine,  195. 

Alberti,  Leon  Battista,  196,  202,  235. 

Albizzi,  57. 

Albret,  Henri  d',  15. 

Albret,  Jeanne  d',  61. 

Alcaeus,  234. 

Alciati,  61. 

Alcinoxis,  77. 

Alencon,  15,  17. 

Alexander  the  Great,  12,  96. 

Alibert,  Noel,  60. 

Altoviti,  57. 

Amboise,  Catherine  d',  215. 

Amboise,  Michel  d',  144,  200. 

Amyot,  Jacques,  8,  195,  229. 

Anacreon,  234. 

Aneau,  Barthelemy,  48,  60,  61,  64,  65, 

125,  150-154,  217,  218,  226,  229,  235. 
Angers,  34,  216. 

Angier,  Paul,  78,  79,  114-119,  146. 
Anguyen,  Monseigneur  d',  137. 
Anjou,  Duke  of,  206. 
Anne  de  Bretagne,  56. 
Annebaut,  Marshal  d',  48,  49. 
Antwerp,  68. 
Archer,  Francois  1',  210. 
Ariosto,  196. 
Aristophanes,  208. 
Aristotle,  205,  234. 
Arnoux,  J.,  78,  105,  108. 
ArtemidorusDaldianus,  49, 125-129, 197, 

207,  230,  234,  237. 
Asselineau,  Charles,  227,  228. 
Astyages,  127. 
Aubert,  Guillaume,  63,  229. 


Auger,  Edmond,  219. 

Augustine,  Saint,  45,  46,  197,  207,  225, 

230,  234. 
Augustus,  12,  96. 
Aumale,  Duke  of,  50. 
Aurigny,  Gilles  d',  78,  79,  118,  144,  146. 
Ausonius,  184,  206,  207,  234. 
Ausoult,  Jean,  58. 
Autelz,  Guillaume  des,  9,  13,  14,  41,  60, 

63,  116,  117,  129,  130,  149,  154,  160, 

2IO,  215,  226,  229. 

Auvergne,  Martial  d',  60. 

Bade,  Josse,  77. 

Baif,  Jean-Antoine  de,  64,  162,  208,  230. 

Baif,  Lazare  de,  184,  195. 

Bale,  126. 

Baron,  Jean,  218. 

Barricat,  Eustache,  197. 

Bartolus,  215,  216. 

Baudrier,  Lucien,  58,  134,  136,  137,  139, 

141. 

Baudrier,  President,  135,  136,  147. 
Baur,  A.,  56,  61,  140. 
Beaune,  Jacques  de,  195. 
Bellay,  Guillaume  du,  47,  48,  151. 
Bellay,  Jean  du,  7,  156. 
Bellay,  Joachim  du,  143-150,  153-162, 

164-170,  172,  176,  177,  186,  189,  190, 

192,  194-196,  198,  199,  201,  208,  230- 

233,  236,  237. 
Bellay,  Martin  du,  151. 
Belleau,  Remi,  162,  208,  230. 
Belle  Isle,  M.  de,  152. 
Bellievre,  Claude,  59. 
Bembo,  100,  104,  109,  196. 
Berni,  196. 


273 


274 


INDEX 


Beroaldo,  Filippo,  30. 

Berlin,  29. 

B6thencourt,  Jean  de,  204. 

Beze,  Theodore  de,  60. 

Bias,  96. 

Birch-Hirschfeld,  A.,  228. 

Blanc,  Richard  le,  195. 

Blanche,  Julia,  62. 

Blanchemain,  Prosper,  63,  202. 

Blois,  16,  19. 

Bobynet,  Jacques,  217. 

Boccaccio,  18,  80,  196. 

Boethius,  234. 

Boiardo,  196. 

Boileau,  24. 

Bologna,  129. 

Bonhomme,  Mac6,  58. 

Bonnefon,  Paul,  15,  20,  26,  29,  32,  36. 

Bonnepain,  Pernette,  136. 

Borbonius.    See  Bourbon. 

Bordeaux,  16. 

Bouchet,  Jean,  29,  63,  144,  195. 

Bouju,  Jacques,  146. 

Bourbon,  Nicolas,  20,  21,  41,  43,  61,  63, 

226. 

Bourciez,  E.,  232. 
Bourg,  Marguerite  de,  62. 
Bourges,  214,  215,  217. 
Bourges,  Cle'mence  de,  61,  62. 
Bourrilly,  V.-L.,  80. 
Boutigny,  Mathieu  de,  36. 
Bouzey,  58. 

Boyssonne",  Jean  de,  124,  229. 
Brantdme,  47,  50. 
Briconnet,  78. 
Brie,  Felix  de,  16. 
Brinon,  Jean,  151,  152,  191,  192. 
Brodeau,  Jean,  63. 
Brodeau,  Victor,  26,  28,  63,  193. 
Brotot,  Jean,  206. 
Brunet,  Gustave,  80,  147. 
Brunetiere,  F.,  232. 
Bucher,  Germain  Colin,  37. 
Bud6,  Guillaume,  7,  60,  203,  205,  207, 

215,  234- 


Buisson,  F.,  56,  170,  216,  230. 
Bullioud,  Sibylle,  62. 
Bureau,  Jean,  128,  135,  136. 

Cadiere,  Sibylle,  62. 

Caesar,  3,  48,  66,  203. 

Cahors,  43. 

Calpurnia,  127. 

Calvin,  7,  8,  16,  60. 

Campaux,  192. 

Canappe,  Jean,  217. 

Carasse,  Michel,  218. 

Carentan,  114. 

Cariteo,  180,  235. 

Carles,  Lancelot  de,  229. 

Carme,  Aym6,  135,  136. 

Carme,  Jacques,  136. 

Carme,  Marguerite,  49,  53-55,  120,  129, 

135.  r36,  224. 
Cartier,  A.,  64,  129. 
Castellion,  Se"bastien,  56,  60,  216. 
Castianire,  162. 
Castiglione,  Baldassare,  79,  80,  94,  100- 

102,  105,  109,  113,  196,  235. 
Cato,  96,  127,  234. 
Catullus,  178,  179,  184,  185,  234. 
Cavellat,  Guillaume,  201. 
Caviceo,  196. 
Chalcidius,  77. 
Chamard,  Henri,  145, 146, 148-150, 152- 

155.  157,  166,  189,  208,  229,  233. 
Chambrun,  Seigneur  de.    See  Jamet. 
Champier,  Symphorien,  59,  216. 
Chandelier,  Rene",  211. 
Chaponost,  120. 

Chappuys,  Claude,  63,  114,  117,  229. 
Charles  VIII,  56. 
Charles  IX,  69,  158,  221,  222,  230,  234, 

237- 

Charpentier,  Jacques,  41. 
Chartier,  Alain,  29,  213,  214. 
Charvet,  L.,  216. 
Chasles,  Philarete,  126. 
Chastillon,  Cardinal  de,  172. 
Chemans,  M.  de.    See  Errault. 


INDEX 


275 


Chemant,  M.  de.    See  Errault. 

Cheneviere,  A.,  129. 

Chesneau,  Louis,  152,  229. 

Christie,  R.  C.,  26,  56,  60. 

Cian,  V.,  94,  100,  102. 

Cicero,  127,  146,  156,  164,  234. 

Citoys,  Jean,  62,  65,  135,  205,  206,  219. 

Clamart,  4,  5. 

Claude  de  France,  46. 

Clement,  Louis,  153-iSS,  157-162,  167, 

220. 

Coadiunal,  M.  de,  225. 
Colin,  Jacques,  7,  63,  80,  198. 
Colin,  Jean,  195. 
Collet,  Claude,  26,  36,  79,  118. 
Colletet,  Guillaume,  9,  10,  45,  46,  85, 

119,  126,  198,  214,  215,  226,  231. 
Colonna,  Francesco,  196. 
Columbus,  203,  204,  234. 
Conards,  Abb6  des,  38. 
Conards,  Confr6rie  des,  37,  40. 
Consandolo,  Chateau  of,  50. 
Constantin,  Antoine,  137,  147. 
Content,  M.,  6. 
Cop,  Guillaume,  7. 
Copin,  29. 

Coras,  Jean  de,  215,  216. 
Corinna,  178. 
Cornarius.    See  Hagenbut. 
Cornelia,  96. 

Corrozet,  Gilles,  79,  86,  136. 
Court,  Benoit,  60. 
Crates,  96,  205,  234. 
Cremona,  50,  53,  234. 
Cr6pet,  E.,  227. 
Creste,  Jeanne,  61. 
Cretin,  Guillaume,  13,  29,  33. 
Croesus,  96. 

Crussol,  Antoine  de,  43,  197,  200. 
Crussol,  Charles  de,  43. 
Crussol,  Chateau  of,  43. 
Crussol,  Mme  de,  200. 
Cublize,  Claude  de,  217. 
Curtius,  96,  97. 
Cyrus,  96. 


Danebault.    See  Annebaut. 

Danes,  Pierre,  7,  8,  229,  233. 

Danesius.    See  Danes. 

David,  13,  20. 

Delaruelle,  Louis,  203. 

Demades,  146. 

Demogeot,  216. 

Demosthenes,  9,  146,  164. 

Denisot,  Francois,  36. 

Denisot,  Nicolas,  36,  213. 

D6sormaux,  Joseph,  62,  65,  227,  229. 

Diacceto,  Francesco  Cattani  da,  100. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  234. 

Diogenes,  205. 

Dolet,  Claude,  63. 

Dolet,  fitienne,  20,  21,  23,  26,  39,  41,  56, 

58-60,  63,  78,  79,  195,  202,  216,  226, 

238. 

Domitian,  203. 
Dorat,  Jean,  8,  160,  161,  230. 
Duaren,  Frangois,  225. 
Dubois,  Jacques,  195. 
Duchatel,  Pierre,  7. 
Ducher,  Gilbert,  41,  43,  61,  63,  226,  229, 

230. 

Duchoul,  Guillaume,  60. 
Dugug,  Jean,  9-14, 45, 100, 165, 177,  210, 

211,  224. 

Dupuy,  Jacques,  218. 
Durand,  Guillaume,  217. 
Duval,  Pierre,  195. 
Du  Verdier,  29. 

Embrun,  150. 
Erasmus,  6,  60,  207. 
Errault,  Frangois,  49. 
Eskreich,  Pierre,  58. 
Espinasse,  Baron  de  1',  134. 
Essarts,  Herberay  des,  195. 
Este,  Ercole  d',  16,  50. 
Estienne,  Charles,  195. 
Estienne,  Robert,  60. 
fitaples,  Jacques  Leffcvre  d',  78. 
Euripides,  148,  205,  234. 
fivreux,  6. 


276 


INDEX 


Fabricius,  96. 

Faye,  Jeanne,  62. 

Ferdinand  V,  King  of  Spain,  204. 

Ferrand,  Francois,  4,  36. 

Ferrara,  16,  17,  47,  49-52,  55,  100,  127, 

216,  224,  234. 
Ferrara,  Princess  of,  50. 
Ferret,  fimile,  60. 
Ferrier,  Oger,  128. 

Ficino,  Marsilio,  77,  94,  100,  102,  104. 
Find,  Oronce,  7. 
Florence,  57. 
Flores,  Juan  de,  196. 
Foclin,  Antoine,  166. 
Folengo,  196. 

Fontaine,  Calvy  de  la,  22, 29,30,32,36,40. 
Fontaine,  Catherine,  5,  53, 152, 186, 189, 

210,  224,  228,  229,  236,  237. 
Fontaine,  Charles  JUs,  121. 
Fontaine,  Fleurie  or  Flora,  120, 121, 128, 

190,  224. 

Fontaine,  Francoise,  121,  122. 
Fontaine,  Gaspard,  121,  128. 
Fontaine,  Jacques,  121. 
Fontaine,  Jean,  121-123,  I29»  228,  229, 

237. 
Fontaine,  Rene",  121,  124,  125,  152,  189, 

210,  229,  237. 
Fontaine,  S6bastien,  121. 
Forcadel,  fitienne,  229. 
Four,  Claude  du,  128. 
Founder,  fidouard,  154-157,  235. 
FourviSre,  59,  66,  67. 
Frachet,  Jacques,  217,  218. 
France,  College  de,  7,  224. 
Francis  I,  4,  7,  8,  12,  14,  16-18,  27,  35, 

44-47,  49,  55-57,  7°,  77,  »5,  87,  118, 

119,  122,  127,  148,  l62,  164-166,  177, 
193,  195,  197,  213,  219,  224,  227. 

Francois  of  Valois,  193. 
Frangipani,  57. 
Fume'e,  Antoine,  64. 

Gadagne,  59. 
Gaillarde,  Jeanne,  61. 


Galen,  128,  234. 

Gallopin,  28. 

Gaucher,  Francois,  36. 

Gaudin,  Alexis,  211. 

Gaulvain,  Magdelleine,  136. 

Gazeau,  Guillaume,  200. 

Ge"lonis,  61. 

Genoa,  57. 

Genouillac,  Jeanne  de,  43. 

Gerig,  J.  L.,  216,  217,  222. 

Glotelet,  Nicole,  26,  29,  30,  33,  34,  36, 

Godefroy,  F.,  227,  228. 

Gohin,  Ferdinand,  78-80,  85,  97,  105, 

108,  no,  112,  114,  118. 
Gohorry,  Jacques,  195,  229. 
Goujet,  Abbe",  3-5,  47,  48,  52,  55,  70,  79, 

80,  88,  116,  118,  120,  140,  190,  193, 

200,  202,  210,  215,  222,  226~228. 

Gounnont,  77. 

Gouttes,  Jean  des,  60,  230. 

Gouve"a,  Antoine  de,  60. 

Gouy,  President  de,  131,  132. 

Gracchi,  96. 

Grand,  Anne,  136. 

Gravier,  Jean,  128. 

Greban,  13,  29. 

Grolier,  59. 

Gryphe,  Se"bastien,  58-60,  135,  136,  234. 

Guevara,  Antonio  de,  196. 

Guidacerius,  Agathias,  7. 

Guiffrey,  Georges,  15,  16,  22,  23,  26,  27, 

36,  50,  70,  76,  80. 
Guillet,  Pernette  du,  48,  61. 
Guillot,  M.,  129. 
Guise,  Duke  of,  50. 

Habert,  Francois,  144, 160, 163, 195,  214. 

Hadrian,  186,  234. 

Hagenbut,  Johann,  126. 

Hannibal,  66,  127. 

Hartmann,  II.,  14. 

Heliodorus,  234. 

Henry  II,  8, 44,  58, 85, 157, 166, 193,  219, 

222. 

Herodotus,  43,  234. 


INDEX 


277 


H£roet,  Antoine,  63,  78-80,  86,  87,  97, 

105,  109-114,  117,  119,  145,  146,  195, 

232.  235,  236. 
Hippocrates,  128,  234. 
Homer,  96,  200,  201,  234. 
Horace,  12,  23,  96,  149,  152,  156,  163, 

165,  169,  177,  190-192,  205,  234. 
Hortensius,  146. 

Hospital,  Michel  de  1',  61,  191,  229. 
Huet,  Charles,  18,  21-24,  26,  27,  29,  30, 

32,  34,  35.  37-39,  74,  163. 

Immacule'e-Conception,  Confreiie  de  1', 

iS- 

Isabeau,  sister  of  Henri  d'Albret,  15. 
Ivor,  M.  d',  203. 

Jamet,  Lyon,  16,  27,  28,  33,  51, 176,  229. 

Jerome,  Saint,  13. 

Job,  13. 

Jodelle,  162,  230. 

Joly,  Claude,  9. 

Jowett,  B.,  89  ff. 

Jug6,  C.,  213. 

Julleville,  Petit  de,  232. 

Juste,  Francois,  58,  70,  136. 

Juvenal,  205,  234. 

Juvencus,  13. 

Kerr,  W.  A.  R.,  78,  109,  no,  112. 

Lab£,  Louise,  48,  61-64,  232,  233. 

Laberius,  206. 

La  Borderie,  Bertrand  de,  26,  28,  33,  78- 

80,  85, 93, 105, 112, 114, 116, 118, 119, 

146. 

La  Croix  du  Maine,  29,  80, 140,  209,  213. 
Lactantius,  207,  234. 
La  Hueterie.    See  Huet. 
La  Maison  Neufve,  63. 
Langey,  M.  de.    See  Bellay,  Guillaume 

du. 

Lanson,  Gustave,  68,  203,  207. 
Lascaris,  Jean,  59. 
Latomus,  Barthe'lemy,  7. 


Laumonier,  P.,  152,  160,  184,  232,  235. 

Laurencin,  Claude,  59. 

Lavaur,  8. 

Le  Blond,  Jean,  18,  2.7,  29,  144. 

Lefranc,  Abel,  7,  70,  76-78,  85-87,  105. 

Le  Havre,  221. 

Le  Jouvre,  Nicole,  117,  163,  210,  214, 

215- 

Lemaire  de  Beiges,  76,  145,  184,  233. 
Le  Mans,  16,  164,  213. 
Le  Noir,  Guillaume,  202. 
Le  Sage,  117. 
Lesbia,  178. 
Loisel,  Antoine,  9. 
Lorris,  Guillaume  de,  145. 
Louis  XII,  4,  47,  56. 
Loynes,  Antoinette  de,  150. 
Loyola,  7. 
Lucca,  57. 
Lucian,  30. 
Lucretia,  21,  96. 
Lugdunum,  66. 
Lugdus,  66. 
Lycurgus,  96,  234. 
Lynieres,  Mme  de,  215. 
Lyon,  le  conseiller  du,  151,  152. 
Lysander,  96. 

Mabr6e,  Jacques  de,  36. 

Macault,  Antoine,  195. 

Mac6,  29. 

Machiavelli,  196. 

Macon,  128. 

Macrin,  Salmon,  20,  21,  61. 

Maecenas,  191,  215. 

Magny,  Olivier  de,  9,  62,  64,  162,  230. 

Maine,  Guillaume  du,  46. 

Malherbe,  211. 

Mantua,  50,  53,  234. 

Marcheferriere,  M.  de  la,  99. 

Marguerite,  sister  of  Charles,  Duke  of 

Orleans,  46. 

Marguerite  de  France,  141. 
Marguerite  de  Navarre,  15,  16,  59,  60, 

77,  78,  86,  87,  109,  no,  229,  233. 


278 


INDEX 


Marignan,  57. 

Marmoutier,  College  de,  6. 

Marnef,  Hierosme  de,  201. 

Marnef,  Jeanne  de,  128. 

Marot,  C16ment,  4, 13-42,  47,  4Q-51,  55, 
59-61,  63, 64,  70,  74,  76,  79,  80, 87, 88, 
105,  114-116,  136-140,  I44-U7,  149, 
IS3,  159-162,  167,  168,  171-174,  176- 

178,  183-186,  IQS,  196,  2OI,  2O6,  208, 
224-229,  231-233,  237. 

Martial,  138, 169, 172-174, 177, 178, 184, 

186,  194,  234,  237. 
Martin,  Jean,  195. 
Masures,  Louis  des,  195,  198. 
Mathe'olus,  70. 
Mathorez,  J.,  15. 
Mayaulde,  Fleurie,  135,  136. 
Maynus.    See  Maine,  Guillaume  du. 
Medici,  Catherine  de',  221. 
Meigret,  Louis,  41,  60,  149,  195. 
Menander,  205. 

Meschinot,  Jean,  29,  144,  213,  214. 
Metellus,  12. 
Meung,  Jean  de,  70,  145. 
Mexfa,  Pedro,  196. 
Milan,  47,  52,  53,  56,  57,  234. 
Milet,  213,  214. 
Molinet,  Jean,  76. 
Montaigne,  6. 
Montaigu,  College  de,  6. 
Montaudoyn,  Benolt,  136. 
Montmartre,  131. 
Morel,  Camille  de,  150. 
Morel,  Diane  de,  150. 
Morel,  Jean  de,  48,  150,  152,  168,  211. 
Morel,  Lucrece  de,  150. 
Morelet,  Catherine,  99. 
Mor6ri,  L.,  70. 
Morf,  H.,  228. 
Moulin,  Antoine  du,  60,  64,  128,  129, 

229. 

Moulinet,  29. 
Mugnier,  Francois,  124. 
Mulot,  Jean,  136. 
Muret,  Marc-Antoine  de,  185. 


Musaeus,  201,  234. 
Musselier,  Jean,  136. 
Mustard,  W.  P.,  192,  193. 

Naples,  56. 
Naris,  57,  58. 

Navagero,  Andrea,  57,  208. 
N6rac,  16. 
Nero,  66. 
Nesson,  213,  214. 
Nevizan,  Jean,  70. 
Nifo,  Agostino,  129. 
Nolhac,  Pierre  de,  149-152. 
Notre-Dame  de  Paris,  3,  224. 
Noue,  Edmond  de,  36. 
Nourry,  Claude,  58. 
Nyverd,  Guillaume  de,  221. 

Olivetan,  18. 
Orleans,  216. 
Origans,  Charles,  Duke  of,  46,  47,  147, 

184. 

Oni,  Jean,  164,  210,  212,  213. 
Ovid,  43,  88,  96,  127,  164,  169,  177-179, 

185-188,  194,  197-202,  205,  207,  208, 

223,  234,  237. 

Padua,  216. 

Pagnini,  Sanctes,  59,  60. 

Papillon,  Almaque,  26,  28, 42,  70,  71,  74- 

76,  78,  79,  93,  "8,  146,  147,  183,  231, 

237- 

Paradin,  Guillaume,  61. 
Pare,  Sieur  du.    See  Sauvage. 
Paris,  Parliament  of,  6,  9,  129-132. 
Paris,  University  of,  8. 
Parrhasius,  Janus,  36. 
Paschal,  Pierre  de,  157,  158,  160. 
Pasquier,  Etienne,  216,  230. 
Pavia,  49,  234. 
Payen,  Thibaud,  55,  58,  135,  136,  210, 

234. 

Pazzi,  57. 
Peletier,  Jacques,  60,  64,  165,  166,  184, 

195,  216,  233,  235. 


INDEX 


279 


P6rard,  Antoine,  49,  211,  226. 

P£ricaud,  A.,  217,  218. 

Pericles,  9,  205. 

Pe'riers,  Bonaventure  des,  18,  19,  26,  28- 

30,  33-36,  60,  61,  78,  86,  184,  195. 
Pe'ronne,  Claudine,  61. 
Perrin,  Ennemond,  61. 
Perrow,  F.  €.,32. 
Petit,  Guillaume,  7. 
Petit,  Jean,  77. 
Petrarch,  112,  196,  233,  235. 
Peyrat,  Jean  du,  59. 
Peyrat,  Magdeleine  du,  125. 
Philip  of  Macedon,  127. 
Phocion,  96. 

Phylledier,  Guillaume,  136. 
Picot,  fimile,  62,  114,  137,  139. 
Pindar,  161,  190,  234. 
Plancus,  Lucius  Munatius,  66. 
Plato, 76-79, 86-90, 92, 97-100, 102, 105, 

106,  112,  113,  127,  234,  236. 
Plessis,  College  du,  5,  6,  224,  233. 
Plessis,  Geoffroi  du,  5,  6. 
Pliny,  7. 
Plutarch,  234. 
Poitiers,  34,  154. 
Pole,  Reginald,  60. 
Polier,  Ennemond,  135,  136. 
Poncher,  fitienne,  7. 
Pontanus,  178. 
Porte,  Eustache  de  la,  132. 
Pr6,  Galiot  du,  87,  114. 
Propertius,  169,  177,  178,  205. 
Ptolemy,  199,  204,  234. 
Pulci,  196. 

Querci,  43. 
Querinec,  M.  de,  225. 

Rabelais,  Francois,  6,  7,  32,  41,  59,  60, 

114,  115, 124- 
Rabelais,  The'odule,  124. 
Ramus,  41. 
Raynier,  Jean,  217. 
Reims,  6,  58,  61. 


Renee  de  France,  16, 47,  50,  51, 100, 177. 

Reverdy,  G.,  58,  139,  140. 

Richardot,  Francois,  50. 

Richer,  Christophe,  36. 

Rigaud,  Benolt,  58,  205,  221. 

Robynier.    See  Bobynet. 

Rochay,  Michel  du,  210. 

Rodocanachi,  E.,  50. 

Rohan,  Francois  de,  217. 

Rohan,  Rene"  de,  15. 

Rollet,  Philibert,  58,  135,  136. 

Ronsard,  41,  62,  104,  149,  159,  160-162, 

164,  166-168,  184-186,  191,  192,  199, 

208,  230,  231. 
Rosalba,  G.,  192. 
Rouen,  6,  15,  17,  37,  129,  169. 
Rouille'.    SeeRoville. 
Roussin,  Francois,  36. 
Roville,  Guillaume,  58,   135-142,  172, 

234- 

Roy,  fimile,  114, 143,  145-148,  167,  238. 
Rubys,  Claude  de,  61. 
Ruelle,  Jean,  136. 
Ruutz-Rees,  Caroline,  86,  175,  232. 

Sabinus,  Aulus,  200. 
Sabon,  Sulpice,  147. 
Sadolet,  Jacques,  60. 
Sagon,  Francois,  4,  IS~42,  74,  76,  79,  "7, 

144,  146,  147,  163,  224,  231. 
Saint-Ambroise,  Seigneur  de.    See  Colin, 

Jacques. 

Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire,  215. 
Saint-Denis,  131. 

Saint-Ebvroul,  Abb6  de,  16,  17,  23,  27. 
Saint-Gelais,  Mellin  de,  41,  63,  80,  104, 

114,  117,  138,  146,  157-160,  162,  167, 

178,  184,  193,  195,  202,  229,  233. 
Saint-Gelais,  Octovien  de,  195,  198,  200, 

201. 

Saint-Malo,  6. 

Saint-Romat,  Seigneur  de,  198,  200,  201. 
Sainte-Beuve,  61,  216. 
Sainte-Marthe,  Charles  de,  60,  63,  86, 

226,  233,  236. 


280 


INDEX 


Sala,  Pierre,  59. 

Salel,  Hugues,  63, 114, 184, 193, 195,  229, 

233,  235. 

Saliat,  Pierre,  43,  52,  195,  229. 
Salomon,  Bernard,  58,  209. 
Sannazaro,  169,  175,  178,  180,  184,  192- 

194,  235,  237. 
San  Pedro,  Diego  de,  196. 
Sanxon,  Jean,  195. 
Sappho,  61. 

Saulnier,  Adam,  79,  85,  147. 
Sauvage,  Denys,  44,  54, 87, 125, 136,  210, 

226,  229. 

Savoy,  two  sisters  of,  17,  18,  25. 
Scaliger,  Jules-Ce'sar,  41. 
Sceve,  Claudine,  61. 
Sceve,  Maurice,  48,  56,  59-65,  86,  87, 

114,  117,  140,  145,  174,  229,  232,  235. 
Sceve,  Sibylle,  61. 
Scipio,  127. 

Secundus,  Janus,  60,  178. 
Segusiavi,  66. 
Seneca,  206,  234. 
Sens,  6. 

Septimius  Severus,  66. 
Serafino  dall'  Aquila,  180,  235. 
Serhisaeus,  Benedictus,  36. 
S£rigny,  40. 
Sertenas,  Vincent,  209. 
Seyssel,  Claude  de,  195. 
Sibilet,  Thomas,  104,  144,  148,  149,  166, 

177,  186,  195-197,  207,  208,  216,  227. 
Simon,  Henri,  118. 
Simonides,  234. 

Socrates,  96,  98,  99,  127,  213,  234. 
Solon,  96,  234. 
Sophocles,  29. 
Sorbonne,  16-18,  59,  60. 
Sperone  Speroni,  208. 
Spingarn,  J.,  154. 
Stesichorus,  21,  234. 
Steyert,  A.,  57,  58,  221,  222. 
Strabo,  204,  234. 
Strozzi,  57. 
Stuard,  Jacqueline  de,  61. 


Sturel,  Ren6,  29. 

Suetonius,  203,  234,  235. 

Surie,  Antoine  de,  211. 

Sussanneau,  Hubert,  59. 

Sylla,  12. 

Symposius,  207,  210,  228,  234. 

Synesius,  128,  234. 

Syrus,  Publilius,  206,  207,  234. 


Tahureau,  Jacques,  233. 

Taillemont,  Claude  de,  64. 

Tamot,  Gabriel,  133,  210,  213,  214. 

Tapponi,  57. 

Tebaldeo,  180,  235. 

Temporal,  Jean,  58,  197. 

Terence,  234. 

Teshault.    See  Autelz. 

Theocritus,  169,  184,  192. 

Theognis,  205. 

Theophrastus,  205. 

Thiboust,  Guillaume,  136. 

Thomas,  Maitre,  58. 

Tiberius,  96. 

Tibullus,  169,  177,  178,  186,  187,  189. 

Ticier,  Jean,  5. 

Tilley,  Arthur,  57,  77,  79,  114,  154,  176, 

228,  232,  233. 
Tiraqueau,  Andre",  70. 
Tondi,  57. 

Torraca,  Fr.,  175,  193. 
Torv6on,  le  conseiller,  125. 
Tory,  Geoffrey,  195. 
Toulouse,  59,  128,  169,  216. 
Tour,  Berenger  de  la,  226. 
Toumes,  Jean  de,  55,  58, 59,  79, 125, 128, 

135,  136,  200,  201,  209,  234. 
Tournus,  135. 
Tours,  4,  6. 

Tours,  Pierre  de,  136,  234. 
Toussain,  Jacques,  7,  238. 
Trent,  Council  of,  8. 
Trinite",  College  de  la,  60,  142,  150,  152, 

216-218,  224,  235. 
Trivulzi,  57. 


INDEX 


281 


Tronchet,   Bonaventure  du,   121,   122, 

140,  141,  211,  226. 
Tronssay,  J.  Quintil  du,  154,  155. 
Troyes,  129. 

Turin,  49,  52,  53,  126,  234. 
Turnebe,  Adrien,  154,  157. 
Turquet,  57,  58. 
Tyard,  Pontus  de,  64, 162, 167,  208,  230, 

232. 

Valence,  43,  215,  216. 
Valerius  Maximus,  128,  234. 
Valous,  Vital  de,  222. 
Vandy,  61. 

Vanerot,  Se'bastien,  218. 
Vase,  Pierre,  139. 
Vasuel,  Jacques,  217. 
Vatable,  Francois,  7. 
Vaucelles,  Mathieu  de,  32. 
Vauxelles,  Catherine  de,  62. 
Venddme,  Duke  of,  23. 
Venice,  49,  52,  S3,  68,  127,  234. 
Vercelli,  52,  S3,  234- 
Verger,  filoy  du,  217. 
Verius,  Francois,  128. 
Verius,  Jacques,  151,  152. 


Verrier,  Odoart  le,  128. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  204. 

Vianey,  J.,  68,  232. 

Vigny,  71. 

Villaines,  M.  de.    See  Brinon. 

Villey,  P.,  144,  208. 

Villiers,  Hubert  Philippe  de,  211. 

Villon,  32. 

Vintimille,  Jacques  de,  195. 

Viollet-le-Duc,  80,  226,  227. 

Virgil,  18,  116,  127,  156,  169,  188,  205, 

215,  226,  234. 

Vitry-en-Perthois  (Marne),  26. 
Voconius,  1 86. 
Voizard,  E.,  15. 
Voltaire,  61. 
Voult6,  Jean,  41-43,  61,  63,  226. 

Wilson,  Florent,  61. 
Woeirot,  Pierre,  58. 
Wolmar,  Melchior,  217. 
Wright,  C.  H.  C.,  216. 

Xantippe,  213. 
Xenophon,  96. 
Xerxes,  225. 


TO, 


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